Hanging On
by Kate1406
Summary: When Olivia gets injured will Elliot finally admit his long-held feelings for his partner.
1. Chapter 1

The sharp, stinging pain spread through her chest as the world around her faded to black. In the distance, she could hear him, her one true love, calling for her.

"Olivia! Liv, NO!" Elliot cried as he raced to where she lay bleeding out on the warehouse floor. He reached her side in a matter of seconds and knelt beside her gathering her in his arms. "Liv, please, I need you. You can't leave me, just hang on, help is on the way," he murmured into her hair as he continued to hold his partner and best friend close.

It took all her effort to give him the response she knew he desperately wanted and when she finally managed to speak all that came out was a barely audible, "El…", but for him it was music to his ears. In that instant he knew that the woman he loved, the strongest woman he knew, was going to be okay.

Several hours later, the members of the 1-6, along with Casey, Alex, Melinda, and the entire Stabler family, had joined Elliot in the hospital's waiting room anxiously waiting for any news on how Olivia's surgery was progressing. Suddenly, Elliot stood up and walked out of the room and then out of the hospital.

"What was that?" Casey asked the group.

"Daddy's been trying to find the right time to tell Liv that he loves her, but hasn't yet, and now he's scared he won't get to," Lizzie Stabler answered and was immediately greeted by several shocked faces.

"Oh, come on like you guys didn't know. It's so completely obvious that they are in love with each other. They just refuse to admit it to themselves and each other," Elliot's ex-wife, Kathy interjected.

Elliot and Olivia's friends continued to stare blankly at the Stabler clan, until finally Alex spoke up, "I think we all suspected something, but nothing to the magnitude."

"I think we need to know exactly what's going on and what happened out there today," Captain Cragen said as he stood up and followed in Elliot's footsteps.

Cragen found Elliot a few minutes later, outside, leaning against the wall of the hospital, with his head in his hands.

"Elliot?"

Stabler glanced toward the Captain before staring straight ahead.

"I have to ask, Elliot, what happened out there today?"

"We were following the suspect, hoping he'd lead us to the girl, and he did. We followed him into the warehouse, I was right behind her, this shouldn't have happened," he paused. "We were right behind him, we could hear him talking to his buddies and she rounded the corner a second before me, identifying herself at the same time. We were going to get these guys, we had them." Cragen nodded, silently urging Elliot to continue. "She didn't even make it around the corner before one of them started shooting and the other two took off running. She shot at the original shooter and he went down, he was dead, then we both took off after the others. We should've stayed together, but we didn't. I found one of the runners and arrested them, I was handing him off to one of the uniforms, when I heard the gunshots and her scream. I ran to her, but by the time I got there she was unconscious, there was blood everywhere, and the shooter was nowhere to be seen. I didn't find out until later that a uniform had tackled him right after he shot Liv and arrested him. I guess you know the rest."

Cragen nodded, "Yea…"

They were both silent for a few minutes.

"What about what your family just told me, what's going on between you and Benson?"

"Officially, nothing."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, I love her. I was just too scared to tell her and now I may have lost my chance."

"Hmmm, I don't think you've lost your chance, I have a feeling Benson's stronger than any of us probably realize. When she wakes up though, don't put it off any longer, you're just wasting time."

"Thanks Cap."

"You're welcome. Now, we should probably get back inside."

Finally, a doctor walked into the room. "Family of Olivia Benson?"

Thirteen people stood up and approached, including little Eli, who was awake even though it was now close to 3:00 in the morning.

"You're all family?"

"Yes," Elliot replied with more force than was necessary.

"Okay then, Miss Benson did amazingly well in surgery. We're expecting her to make a full recovery, but she'll need to get plenty of rest. She's sleeping right now, but should be awake in a few hours."

"When can we see her?" Elliot asked impatiently.

"We're moving her to a private room right now. After we have her settled, you can sit with her one at a time until she wakes up. You can head up to the third floor and I'll have someone come get you once she's settled in her room."

"Thank-you doctor," Cragen said.

As the doctor walked away, Elliot informed his family and friends, "I'm going to stay with her."

"We wouldn't expect anything else, Dad," Maureen replied.

Kathy spoke next, "I'm glad she's okay, Elliot, but I need to get the kids home to get some sleep." She moved in to give her ex-husband hug, whispering in his ear, "Don't waste any more time, tell her." When the pulled apart they both had slight smiles on their faces.

"I will, don't worry."

He hugged and said good-bye to each of his five children and they left with their mother. Elliot turned to face his friends.

Cragen was the first to speak up, "We're all heading home to get some sleep before work too, but make sure to call us if you need us. Oh and I don't want to see you at work today or tomorrow at the very least."

Elliot agreed not to go to work and said good-bye to everyone as they left, before heading up to the third floor.


	2. Chapter 2

As Elliot stepped off the elevator into the third floor waiting room he heard a nurse calling, "Family of OliviaBenson."

"That's me," Elliot replied, approaching the young nurse.

"Miss Benson is in her room now and resting comfortably. If you want to sit with her you can follow me."

"I do."

"Alright, this way," the young woman told him as she turned and walked away. Elliot followed the nurse to Liv's room. They stopped just outside of the door, "This is her room, try not to disturb her, she needs her rest."

Elliot nodded and entered his partner's room. He walked to the foot of the bed before stopping and staring at the sleeping woman lying before him. She was beautiful he realized, though not for the first time. She looked so peaceful, especially considering that she'd been shot just hours before. He walked around to the side of the bed and pulled the chair closer before sitting down and taking her hand in both of his. Within minutes he had rested his head on the edge of the bed and fallen asleep still clasping her hand.

It was a few minutes before 8:30 when Olivia finally woke up. The events of the previous evening all came rushing back and at the same time she felt the searing pain in her chest where she'd been shot. Then, she noticed Elliot holding her hand, asleep on the edge of the bed. She gently pulled her hand free and ran it through her best friend's hair, before letting it rest on the back of his neck. She watched as the man she had secretly loved for years slowly began to stir.

As he woke up, Elliot sat up, causing Olivia's hand to fall back to the bed. It was quickly replaced by his own as he attempted to work out the kinks in his neck. "How do you feel? Are you in a lot of pain?" he asked her, concern filling his voice.

"It's not too bad, considering I was shot," she answered with a smirk.

He frowned back at her.

"Hey, El, I'm going to be okay," she told him as she covered his hand with hers, offering him a reassuring smile.

"I know that, but you scared the hell out of me Liv."

"Sorry," she said turning to look away.

Elliot sighed, grabbed her hand in one of his and used his other to turn her face back to his, "I wasn't blaming you, in fact, I'm kind of glad it happened."

"You're glad I got shot? Gee, thanks."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"So what did you mean?"

"Nothing, forget about it." He stood up and started to pace.

"El, would please sit back down and explain to me why you're so freaking happy that I got shot."

He sat down, put his head in his hands, not saying a word. Liv watched him, waiting. After a while she started to get impatient, "El…talk to me, please. What's going on?"

"It's just…"

"It's just what?"

"When you go shot, I realized…," he paused, she waited, knowing he'd finish when he was ready. He finally looked up at her, "how awful it would be to lose you, I couldn't stand it if you just…weren't there anymore. When you got shot I was afraid that I'd never get a chance to tell you how I feel, but then I realized it was really just giving me the chance to tell you. I love you Olivia, I have for a while."

She turned her head away again, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes and heard the soft, "Oh, El…"

He reached out and smoothed her hair back away from her face, "Liv? Please don't tell me you don't feel it too."

She turned to face him, tears still in her eyes, she cupped his cheek, "Of course I feel it, I've just been hanging on, waiting for you."

"Well, you can stop waiting Livvie, I'm here now," he brought his forehead down to hers. "I love you."

She smiled, "Livvie, huh? I like it El."

"And…?

"And I love you too."

"Good."

He kissed her, running his tongue over her bottom lip seeking entrance. She opened her mouth for him, deepening the kiss as she placed her hand on the back of his neck. Elliot moaned as his tongue delved into her mouth, this kiss being better than anything he could've ever imagined. When they finally broke apart they were both smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

"Knock, knock," a doctor walked into the room, chuckling as he watched the pair spring apart suddenly. "How are you feeling this morning Miss Benson?"

"My chest hurts, but I'm guessing that's because I was shot yesterday," she told the doctor, still smiling slightly to herself.

"When can she go home?" Elliot questioned.

"I want to keep her through today just to make sure her wound doesn't get infected, but if everything goes well, she'll be discharged tomorrow morning."

"Thanks."

"I'm going to send in a nurse to check your pain meds, Miss Benson, but other than that everything seems to be okay, so just have me paged if you need something."

"Thank-you, Doctor."

He nodded and walked out of the room. Within a minute, a young nurse had entered the room and started to check Liv's meds, making a few minor adjustments. "There you go, Miss Benson, that should help with the pain."

Liv smiled, "Thank-you."

Around lunchtime all the Stabler kids walked into their room followed closely by their mother. "Hello, Olivia," Kathy greeted noticing the smiles on Elliot and Olivia's faces, as well as, their hands clasped together on the edge of the bed. "Are you in a lot of pain?"

"Not right now, they adjusted my pain meds this morning."

"So, why are you two so happy?" Kathleen interjected with a knowing smile at the same time that Maureen spoke up, "Did you tell her?"

"Of course he told her, don't be stupid you two," Richard remarked snidely.

"Richard, be nice they were just asking. And besides, I want to know the answer to both questions too," scolded his twin.

"Would all four of you stop arguing and just let your father speak for himself," Kathy reprimanded her children.

There was silence for a few moments. Eli was the first to speak, "Daddy…?"

"Yes, Eli?"

"Did you tell her?"

Elliot and Olivia turned to look at each other and he placed a sweet kiss on her lips before turning back to his young son and answering the question everyone seemed to be asking. "Yea, buddy, I told her."

His children's faces immediately broke into huge grins and congratulations filled the room. Kathy hung back, smiling, happy that her ex had finally told his partner that he loved her. She had seen it for a long time and it was part of the reason why she'd divorced him three years earlier. She knew he loved Olivia and wasn't happy in their marriage, but she also knew that he'd never do anything about it unless she was the one to walk away, so she had and now she had proof that it had been worth it. The smiling couple before her belonged together and to make it even better her children honestly loved the woman that Kathy felt sure would one day be their step-mother.

"Am I safe in assuming that you kids want to stay here with your dad and Olivia for a while?"

"YES!" her children screamed in near unison.

"Okay," she laughed. "Is that okay with the two of you?" she asked Elliot and Olivia, casting glances between the two of them.

"It's fine, Kathy."

"Well, then, I'm going to lunch with Chris, just call me when you're ready to be picked up."

"Okay Mom, tell Chris hi for us, have fun and we'll see you later," Maureen spoke as representative for all the Stabler kids.

After Kathy had left the room, Elliot turned a questioning gaze to his oldest daughter, "Chris?"

"Her boyfriend," Kathleen answered from where she was perched on the edge of Olivia's bed.

"They've been dating for almost three months," Lizzie added.

"So, what do you guys think of him?" Elliot asked.

The kids looked at each other, none of them wanting to be the first to speak up. Finally, Eli looked up at Elliot from where he was sitting in his father's lap, "I like him, Daddy. He took me to the park last week and bought me an ice-cream."

Elliot smiled down at his youngest son and suddenly his children all wanted to voice their opinion of Kathy's latest boyfriend. They all started speaking at once.

"He seems nice enough," Maureen stated.

"I don't like him," Richard put in.

"He's okay, I guess," Lizzie said sounding doubtful.

"I don't really know him, but no way is he as cool as Liv," Kathleen said with conviction.

Olivia and Elliot looked at each other and smiled as the kids all agreed with Kathleen.

After eating lunch in Olivia's hospital room and hanging out for a while the kids decided to have their mother pick them up and let Olivia get some rest. After Kathy picked up the kids, Liv started trying to convince Elliot to go home and get cleaned up, maybe even get a few hours of sleep in a bed instead of a chair.

"El, go home, shower, change, get some sleep."

"I'm not leaving you."

"Well, then I'm kicking you out. I need to get some sleep, besides you're starting to smell." She feigned disgust.

He chuckled, "Fine, I'm going, but I'm only showering, changing, and packing a bag for tonight and tomorrow morning." He stood up from his chair, leaned over her, and kissed her passionately, before putting on his coat and walking towards the door. When he reached the door, he turned back, "Get some rest, I'll be back in a little bit. I love you."

Liv smiled, "I love you too, now go."

He smirked, "I'm going, I'm going."


	4. Chapter 4

When Elliot reached his apartment he rushed through his shower and changed quickly before packing his bag. He packed an extra set of clothes in addition to what he needed for that night and the next morning, knowing that he was going to stay with Liv her first night home, to make sure she was really okay, whether she liked it or not. Once he was sure he had enough clothes for the next couple of days and hadn't forgotten anything, he headed back to the hospital.

On the drive, Elliot dialed Kathy's cell number. He finally heard her pick up on the other end, "Hey Elliot, how's Olivia? Is everything okay?"

"Hey Kathy, Olivia's fine. She better be sleeping, I'm on my way back there now; I had to shower and change. I actually needed to talk to you about this weekend."

"Sure, what's up?"

"Well, I know I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow evening for the weekend, but Olivia's being released tomorrow morning and I intend to stay with her at her place tomorrow night to make sure she's okay. So…I was hoping you could keep the kids tomorrow night and I'll just pick them up Saturday morning. Don't worry I'll still bring them back Sunday afternoon," he spoke quickly, fearing that Kathy already had plans and would say no.

"Calm down, Elliot. I can keep them, but you have to tell them."

"Thanks Kathy, I'll call Maureen now."

"Okay, see you Saturday."

"Bye Kathy."

"Bye Elliot."

He hung up and immediately called his oldest child, hoping to catch her before she started her shift at the coffee shop where she had been working for the past year.

"Hi Dad."

"Hello Sweetheart."

"Is Liv okay?"

"She's fine; I actually need to talk to you about this weekend."

"Sure, what's up?"

"I'm not going to be able to pick you and your brothers and sisters up until Saturday morning."

"Okay, I'll let them know when I get home from work."

"You're not even going to ask why I can't pick you up until Saturday.

"Well, since Liv's being released tomorrow morning, I figure you're going to be spending the night with her."

Elliot chuckled into the phone, "You're right, I'm going to stay with her and make sure she's okay."

"Yea, it has nothing to do with the fact that you finally told her you love her."

"Not at all."

"Whatever. You know if she's feeling up to it, you could invite her to spend the weekend with us."

"Hmmm, a weekend with the five of you, less than 72 hours after being shot, I doubt she'll be up to it, but I'll mention it."

"Okay Daddy. We'll see you Saturday and hopefully Liv too."

"I get the feeling you'd be more excited to see her than me."

"We are."

"Gee, thanks."

"No problem."

"Good-bye Maureen."

"Bye Dad."

Elliot hung up the phone as he pulled into the hospital parking lot.

In less than five minutes he was back in Olivia's hospital room. He stopped just inside the door and once again noticed yet again how beautiful his best friend was. He smiled to himself.

"You can come in you know."

"You are _supposed _to be asleep," he scolded as he walked into the room, dropping his bag by his chair and taking off his coat, before sitting down.

"I wasn't tired," she countered, pushing herself up, so that she was leaning against the pillows.

"Liar."

She smirked at him, "Be nice to me, I'm injured you know."

"Don't try to pull that over on me, injured or not, you're still Olivia Benson."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he answered, a smile lighting his face.

Liv leaned over and smacked him in the shoulder, "Talk!"

"It's nothing, I just meant that you seem to think you're superwoman. I'm positive that if you were given half a chance, you'd be out of here today."

"In a heartbeat," she laughed.

"My point exactly, but since you're here, maybe you should use the time to catch up on some sleep and oh, I don't know, _heal._"

"According to the doctor, I'm _healing_ just fine and like I told you I'm not tired. Now, can we please talk about something else?"

"Fine, Kathy and the kids say I. The kids are going to stay with Kathy tomorrow night."

"But isn't it your weekend?"

"stay with Kathy tomorrow night."

"But isn't it your weekend?"

"Yea, but I have other plans, so I'm just going to pick them up Saturday morning."

"Oh and what might these other plans consist of?" Liv asked with a knowing smirk.

"Taking care of you, of course," he answered while leaning forward briefly to press a quick kiss to her lips.

She smiled, "I don't need you to take care of me Elliot, go spend the weekend with your kids."

"It's not up for discussion Liv, I'm spending tomorrow night at your place, taking care of you. Then, Saturday morning I am going to pick up the kids and the _seven_ of us are going to spend the weekend together, doing whatever you feel up to."

"El, you don't need to take care of me and I doubt your kids want me intruding on their weekend with you."

"First off, I _want _to take care of you. Second, the kids already asked me to get you to spend the weekend with us. Face it Olivia, you said you love me and now you're stuck with me and my kids," he told her as he moved from his chair to sit next to her on the bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, and using his other hand to hold onto hers.

She leaned into him, turning her face, so she could look into his eyes, as she told him, "I _do _love you, El, and I can't think of any way I'd rather spend the weekend. I just didn't want to expect too much, too fast. This is all still so new."

"I've loved you for a while Olivia, so as far as I'm concerned, the only thing new is that I no longer have to hide my feelings for you. And it's never too much to expect to spend time with your family."

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, smiling. He bent down to kiss her and this time she was the one to deepen the kiss. When they finally broke apart they were both smiling. They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just relaxing in each other's arms with Olivia dozing off now and then. Elliot only left her side long enough for the doctor to examine Olivia later that evening. Eventually they fell asleep with their arms wrapped around each other as best as the hospital bed would allow.


	5. Chapter 5

Olivia was the first to wake up Friday morning. She snuggled closer to Elliot's chest, sighing with contentment. She couldn't believe that she was waking up in the arms of Elliot Stabler, the man that she had loved for longer than she could remember, and that he actually lover her too.

Elliot woke up thinking he was the lucky one. He tightened his arms around Olivia, thanking God that she loved him as much as he loved her. He kissed the top of her head, "Good morning, Livvie. You ready to go home today?"

"Definitely," she looked up and her lips met with his.

A short time later the doctor walked in and Elliot slid off the bed. The doctor examined Olivia's healing wound. "Well, you appear to be healing nicely, Miss Benson," he said while scribbling something on the pad in his hand. He ripped off the piece of paper he'd been writing on and handed it to her, "This is a prescription that should help take the edge off the pain once you get home."

"Thank-you, Doctor."

"You're welcome, Miss Benson. I'll send a nurse in to change your bandages and have you sign the necessary forms and then you should be good to go."

The doctor left the room and the nurse entered. She made quick work with Olivia's bandages and handed her the papers, showing her where to sign. Olivia signed all the necessary lines and handed the forms back to the nurse, who glanced through them quickly. "Looks like you're good to go Miss Benson. Don't forget to get your prescription filled, change the bandage regularly, and come back in 10 days to have your stitches removed."

"I'll make sure she does," Elliot spoke up, coming to stand beside Olivia's bed and taking her hand in his.

Olivia smiled slightly and rolled her eyes at Elliot's protectiveness, before turning her attention back to the nurse, "Thank-you."

The nurse smiled at the obviously happy couple and walked out of the room. Olivia went to the bathroom and changed into the hospital issue sweats that the nurse had left at the foot of the bed. When she emerged from the bathroom Elliot stood up from where he'd been sitting on the bed. He crossed the room and gathered her into his arms. He touched his forehead to hers, smiling, "You are beautiful."

She laughed, pushing him away, "And you are a liar. I'm wearing hospital issue sweats and haven't showered in two days, I look like crap. Now, would you please just take me home?"

He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her. When he could feel her smiling against his lips, he pulled back slightly, "You _are _beautiful, regardless of what you're wearing and I'd be glad to take you home."

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips and then pulled free, allowing them both to slip into their shoes and coats. He picked up his bag and held his hand out to the woman who had stolen his heart. Olivia placed her hand in his and let him pull her to his side. They walked out of the hospital and to his car hand in hand.


	6. Chapter 6

They eventually made it back to Olivia's apartment, having stopped along the way to fill her prescription and get first-aid supplies. As they entered the apartment Elliot casually dropped his bag by the door and took Olivia's coat from her, hanging it up along with his own. Then, he gently placed his hand on her lower back and steered her to the couch. "Sit down and rest, I'll fix us something for lunch."

"I've been resting for the past 24 hours Elliot, I don't need any more rest. I'm perfectly capable of helping with lunch, which by the way is going to have to be take-out. There's nothing to eat in the kitchen."

"You were shot, you need to take it easy for the next few days, at least."

"Ordering take out isn't exactly a strenuous activity, Elliot."

"No, but it's also not one that requires two people, so I'll take care of it. Chinese okay?"

"Fine," Olivia gave in and sat down on the couch.

"Good, I'll be right back."

Elliot walked into the kitchen and started rummaging around for a take-out menu. He soon found what he was looking for and called in their order. He headed back to the living room, expecting to find Olivia on the couch where he'd left her, but she wasn't there. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and let out an exasperated sigh before heading down the hall to her bedroom.

He was about to knock on the door when he heard the shower running, so he just pushed it open and walked through her room to the bathroom door. He hesitated before knocking on the door, "Liv?"

"Yea, El?"

"Food will be here in about 45 minutes. You're keeping that bandage dry right?"

"Trying to."

"Okay, let me know if you need help changing it. I'll be in the living room."

"Okay, I'll be out in a few minutes."

Not more than 20 minutes later, Liv walked into the living room wearing a camisole, sweatpants and her still damp hair in a ponytail. "You still willing to help me with this bandage?"

"Sure," Elliot said standing up and following her back to her bedroom.

She sat down on edge of the bed, while he gathered the supplies he needed. He came to stand in front of her, setting down the new bandages on the bed next to her. He carefully pushed aside the strap of her camisole and removed the old bandage, throwing it away. He did his best to clean the wound without causing her too much pain, but he still saw her face contort into an expression of pain.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

He finished cleaning the wound and quickly replaced the bandages. He went about putting the extra bandages and things away while she fixed the strap of her camisole.

They were sitting on the couch together, watching tv, when there was a knock on the door 30 minutes later. "Must be the food," Elliot commented and he disentangled himself from where he and Olivia had been cuddled together and walked to the door.

He came back a few moments later with a bag of Chinese food in his hand and started to set out the assortment on the coffee table. When he was finished, he straightened and handed Liv a set of chopsticks, "Are we foregoing plates?"

"Sure, why not?"

He sat back down beside her and they ate their lunch in peace. After they'd finished, they made quick work of storing the leftovers in the fridge. "Will you please go lay down for a while?"

"Only if you come with me, El."

He smiled at her and let her lead him to the bedroom. She crawled into bed and he walked around to the other side and climbed in behind her, sliding to the middle to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her to him. She shifted against him, smiling to herself, amazed at how safe and loved she felt in his arms. He tucked his chin over her shoulder and murmured through her hair, into her ear, "I love you, Liv."

"I love you, El."

With that they both fell asleep wondering how they could be so lucky.

They awoke a little over two hours later, unsure of what they should do with the rest of the day. They argued briefly over whether or not Olivia should be allowed to leave the apartment, but in the end Elliot won and they ended up playing cards on the bed until it was time for dinner.

For dinner, they just had the leftover Chinese from their lunch and when they were done they curled up together on the couch. They managed to watch two movies and part of a third before Olivia started to yawn.

"Tired?" Elliot asked her with a smirk.

"Maybe a little."

"Well, then, let's go to bed," he turned off the tv and stood up, pulling her with him. He grabbed his bag from where he'd left it by the door earlier and they walked back to the bedroom. They quickly changed into their pajamas and climbed into bed, wrapping their arms around each other. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep, both with slight, but unmistakable smiles on their faces.


	7. Chapter 7

Elliot was the first to wake on Saturday morning. He pulled Olivia closer to his chest and breathed deeply of her strawberry shampoo and conditioner. He felt a smile stretch across his face as he settled in to wait for Olivia to wake up.

When she finally woke up, she turned around in his arms, so that she could wrap her arms around his waist and look into his eyes. She too, felt herself start to smile.

In that same instant they both realized that they had slept better in each other's arms, than they had in the years they'd been apart.

"Good morning, beautiful," Elliot said as he pressed a kiss to her lips. She opened her mouth under his, deepening the kiss. She felt Elliot moan against her mouth. Hands started to explore and things started to get pretty heated. Before they went _too _far, Olivia pulled away, "What time are we picking up the kids?"

"You sure you feel up to coming with me?"

"Yes, I feel fine. Now, what time?"

"9:30."

"We better get going then, it's already," she paused to look at the clock, "8:30! We're going to be late."

He laughed at her as she struggled to get free, pulling her back to him. "We have plenty of time." He kissed her quickly and then let her go, still chuckling to himself.

As soon as he let her go, she sprung out of bed and rushed through a shower. She came out of the bathroom 15 minutes later wearing only a towel, only to find that Elliot was still in bed. He rolled over to look at her, a smile spread across his face. He obviously liked what he saw. "You need to get up now. I need your help with this bandage."

He groaned, but got up and followed her back into the bathroom where they made quick work of replacing her bandages. When he'd finished, he attempted to pull her to him, but she resisted and walked back to the bedroom, saying, "We have to get dressed, we have somewhere to be, _remember_."

He'd followed her out of the bathroom, "I remember." He picked up his bag, placed it on the bed, and started to change. She followed the suit, laughing at the look on his face when she dropped her towel. "Something wrong, Detective Stabler?"Olivia smirked, secretly enjoying his reaction.

"Not at all, I just…"

"Just what, El? Like what you see?"

"Oh, definitely," he grinned from ear to ear.

"Good, now get dressed. We have five kids expecting us in less than a half hour."

They both got dressed and walked out to Elliot's car. They managed to get to Kathy's house on time. No sooner had they pulled into the driveway than Elliot's five kids came running out the front door. Elliot and Olivia had barely gotten out of the car before the children engulfed them in hugs.

Elliot chuckled, "Guys, calm down and be careful, Liv's only been out of the hospital for a day."

"They're fine, El," Olivia laughed.

Through all the chaos, no one had noticed that Kathy had approached. She cleared her throat to get their attention. Seven people turned their heads to look at her and no one missed the smile that had spread across her face as she watched her children interact with their father and the woman she was sure would soon be their step-mother. "Quite a crowd this weekend."

"Looks like it."

"Yea, I thought maybe you and Liv would like to trade cars for the weekend. You know, take the mini-van, so you guys won't all be sitting on top of each other."

"That'd be great Kathy, you sure you don't mind."

"Not at all, I'll just go get the keys."

She returned to the group a few moments later and traded keys with Elliot. "Okay, I'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon." She hugged all her kids good-bye and watched as the group piled into the mini-van, before walking back to the house, smiling to herself.

Once they were all in the van, Elliot turned to face his children in the backseat, "So, have you guys had breakfast."

"No, Daddy. You always take us out, remember?" Eli asked his father.

"I remember."

Kathleen clarified, "We thought we'd still be going out even though you weren't picking us up until this morning, so we waited."

"Good, because you're right we're still going out."

The backseat erupted in a chorus of cheers. When her younger siblings had settled down enough for her to be heard, Maureen spoke to her father, "So, Dad, is Liv spending the weekend with us after all?"

Elliot glanced over at Olivia, noticing her smile, "Looks like it Maureen."


	8. Chapter 8

When they got to the diner, where Elliot usually took the kids for breakfast, they all shuffled into a booth. Olivia found herself wedged between Elliot and a very excited Eli. She realized that she was finally happy; she smiled to herself and reached under the table to take ahold of Elliot's hand. He laced his fingers through hers and leaned in close to whisper in her ear, "I love you, Olivia Benson."

She had just turned to face him, intending to tell him that she loved him, when Lizzie interrupted, "Hellllo, earth to Dad and Liv. We're talking to you."

They broke apart, looking guilty. "Yes, Lizzie," Elliot addressed his youngest daughter, but noticing the knowing smiles on the faces of his older two.

"We were wondering what we were going to do today."

"Well, I don't know. It depends on what Liv feels up to."

Six expectant faces turned to look at Olivia. "Hey, don't look at me. I feel fine and am up for anything. So what do you guys want to do?"

"Mall," the girls chorused at the same time Eli yelled, "Park," and Dickie cast his vote with, "Movies."

Elliot and Olivia chuckled. "Nice to see you can all agree."

Suddenly, a waitress appeared to take their orders. After they'd gone around the table placing their orders Olivia announced, "I have a suggestion."

"Well, let's hear it."

She turned to face Elliot, "How about we hit the park, have lunch, and then split up this afternoon? The girls and I can hit the mall for a couple hours, while you hang out with the boys. Then, later one group can pick up a couple movies and the other can grab dinner. We can meet back at your place to have dinner and watch the movies. What do you think?"

"Sounds like a lot, do you think you're up to it?"

"I'm fine Elliot, would you just relax?"

"Okay, well, it sounds good to me. What do you guys think?" he asked turning back to his children.

He was greeted with enthusiastic nods and smiles all around. Then, he heard Dickie exclaim, "Boys get to pick the movies!"

Lizzie countered, "Fine, then girls get to pick dinner!"

"Then it's settled," Elliot declared. Then turning to Liv, "While you're out with the girls don't forget to pick up your stuff so you can stay the night."

"Oh, El, I hadn't planned to…I mean don't you want to spend some time with the kids alone tomorrow. I don't want to intrude."

"Olivia…" Elliot began, but was interrupted by Maureen.

"Liv, you're family. We want to spend the weekend with both of you. You're staying the night."

Olivia's eyes filled with tears as she listened to Maureen and saw the other children agree with ecstatic nods. Elliot slipped his arm around her, pulling her to him, "Face it Liv, we love you and you're stuck with us."

She smiled, still fighting back tears, "And I love all of you. There's no one else I'd rather be stuck with," she told them while drying her eyes.

Their food arrived just then and the family resorted to small talk while they ate.


	9. Chapter 9

The day went as Olivia suggested it should. After breakfast, they all headed to the park, fulfilling Eli's request. The guys tossed a football they'd found in the back of the van between them, while Olivia and the girls sat in the shade gossiping and catching up on one another's life.

A couple hours later Eli started to complain, "I'm _hungrrrrryyyyy!"_

Elliot glanced at his watch, "Wow, it's almost noon already. Let's go get Liv and the girls, then we can eat."

"Okay," Eli agreed, running back to where his sisters were still chatting with Liv.

"Whoa!" Liv laughed as Eli hurled himself into her lap. "What's gotten into you?"

"Daddy said we could go eat now, but we had to come get you and the girls first."

"Well, thank-you for not leaving us here," Liv smiled pulling the little boy into a hug and kissing the top of his head, causing him to giggle.

Elliot and Dickie appeared then, Elliot smiling down at the woman he loved and his youngest son. "You ladies ready to go? Eli claims he's _hungrrrrryyyyy,"_ he imitated Eli's whining from a few moments earlier as the little boy climbed to his feet and started trying to pull his dad back towards the van. "Hold on a second Eli, they're not even standing up yet."

"We're ready," Liv told him as she and the girls got to their feet.

Elliot grabbed hold of Olivia's hand with his free one and then allowed Eli to pull them back to the van with the older children close behind.

The group decided to have lunch at a new burger joint that Kathleen had heard of from her friends who apparently thought it was "just awesome!"

At lunch Elliot and Olivia kept busy trying to catch up with everything that was going on in the lives of the five Stabler kids.

Maureen told them that college was going well, she wasn't sure she liked her job, she really liked her new boyfriend though, and yes, she would invite him over for dinner with her dad and Liv sometime soon.

Kathleen went into great detail explaining how college was going and her involvement with the campus Take Back the Night campaign. She said she loved her job and was happy being single, saying it gave her more time to study.

Richard talked about how bored he was with his senior year, but that he was having fun hanging out with his girlfriend of three years and his friends. Elizabeth, on the other hand, claimed to be loving her senior year, especially participating in their school's drama program. She invited her dad and Liv to see her in their next play. She was playing Belle in _Beauty and the Beast._

Eli rambled on and on about his second grade class and their field trip to the aquarium last week. He explained how boring the fish were compared to the sharks, before asking his dad for a pet shark. At that, Olivia tried to hide her smile behind her hand and Elliot almost choked, as he answered, "I don't think so, Buddy."

"Why not?" Eli whined, dismayed by the smiles on the faces of his older siblings and Olivia. "I promise I'll take care of it."

"I know you would Eli, but sharks are dangerous and besides I'm not allowed to have pets at my apartment."

Eli considered this, "Liv…?"

She held up her hand, shaking her head as she too declined, "I'm not allowed to have pets either. Sorry."

The seven-year-old seemed discouraged, but soon perked back up. "I'll ask Mom. She can have pets!"

Elliot smiled, shaking his head in amusement, mumbling under his breath to Olivia, "I'd pay to witness that conversation."

"Me too," she grinned.

After lunch Elliot dropped Olivia and his daughter's at Olivia's apartment, so they could get Olivia's things for the night and then take her car to the mall. "So, we'll meet at my place at six, you'll pick up dinner, we'll get the movies?"

"Sounds good." Olivia reached over to give Elliot a quick kiss before joining the girls outside the car and watching him drive off with the boys.

"Okay girls," she turned to face Maureen, Kathleen and Lizzie, "let's go get my stuff, then we'll head to the mall."

The group of four traipsed up the stairs to Olivia's apartment. Maureen, Kathleen and Lizzie wandered aimlessly around Olivia's living room while Liv was in her bedroom packing a bag.

"She sure has a lot of pictures of her and dad," Lizzie observed. The only personal items in the room were, in fact, the pictures of Liv and El, whether they were alone, with the kids, or with their friends from work, the pictures all had one thing in common: Olivia and Elliot were together and smiling, obviously happy.

"And not a whole lot else," Kathleen added.

"Well, she spends a lot of time at work, probably more than him. So, I'm guessing the pictures can be explained by her not having a lot of time to spend with anyone else. The fact that they're the only things here is probably due to the amount of time she spends at work as well, she's just not home a lot," Maureen speculated.

Olivia appeared just then, "You're right, Maureen. I'm not home a lot, so decorating just never seemed important. As for the pictures, well, you're dad's my best friend, so most of my pictures just naturally include both of us, but just so you know the majority of these we're taken in the past three years. After your parent's divorce."

The girls seemed to accept this explanation and let the subject drop.

"Are you girls ready to go, then?" Liv broke the silence. They answered her by heading toward the door. Olivia shouldered her overnight bag and purse and followed the girls out of her apartment.

After they'd been at the mall for a couple of hours, the women found themselves trying on an assortment of necklaces and admiring them in a department store mirror.

Liv had just finished clasping a new necklace around Lizzie's neck and was readjusting the 17-year-old's hair around her shoulders, when a saleswoman approached. "That looks beautiful on you, honey," she said addressing Lizzie, then turned to Olivia, "You're very lucky, I've never seen a teenager get along so well with her mother."

Olivia looked shocked and didn't notice that Maureen and Kathleen had returned with more necklaces and were standing just a few feet away, "I'm not her mother, but I am very lucky."

"You're not her mother," the saleswoman looked confused.

Lizzie spoke up, "No, she's my step-mother."

"Well, not really. It's complicated," Olivia tried to explain, but only succeeded only in confusing the woman further.

"It is not complicated," Lizzie argued. "You're dating my dad, he loves you, you obviously love him, and you'll be my step-mom soon enough."

The saleswoman walked away looking more confused than ever, as Maureen and Kathleen finally stepped forward. "Well, you two really did a number on her," Kathleen giggled.

"She's going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out exactly what you two were talking about," Maureen choked out through her own fit of giggles.

Olivia opened her mouth to respond to the girls and then realized she didn't actually have anything to say and closing it again. The rest of their shopping trip went as expected. All four of them walked away happy with their purchases.

They left the mall, picked up pizza for dinner, and managed to get back to Elliot's apartment a few minutes before six. Elliot pulled up with the boys just as Olivia and the girls were getting out of the car. Olivia spotted them and she and the girls waited at the front door for Elliot and the boys to catch up.

When Elliot reached the spot where Olivia was waiting with his daughters, he walked up to her, placed a hand on her arm and kissed her cheek, before sliding his hand down her arm to take her hand in his.

Once the group reached Elliot's apartment the kids headed to the living room to start one of the movies that Dickie had brought up from the car, while El and Liv headed to the kitchen. Elliot was laying out the pizzas he'd taken from Maureen and Olivia was getting out the plates and glasses.

Elliot finished and walked over to stand behind her and wrap his arms around her waist. She brought her hands down, from where she'd been reaching up to grab more glasses, to cover his. He tucked his chin over her shoulder, "How'd it go with the girls today, Sweetheart?"

She turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck, "Fine, a saleswoman thought I was Lizzie's mom though."

"What'd you say?"

"I told her I wasn't and Lizzie told her I was almost her step-mom. We really confused the poor woman," Liv smiled.

"I'm glad you amused yourself," El smirked. He leaned down and kissed her passionately. This is how Eli found them when he walked in, "Can we eat now?"

The couple broke apart, breathing heavily, "Yea, sure, Buddy."

Elliot pressed another quick kiss to Olivia's lips, before calling his other children to come get their dinner. Olivia finished getting down the glasses and started filling them with soda that she'd found in the fridge.

Soon the family was settled in the living room. Elliot had settled in one corner of the couch with Olivia curled up by his side. Maureen had taken up residence on the other end of the couch and Kathleen had claimed the chair. The three youngest Stablers were sitting on the floor in front of the couch, eating their dinner off the coffee table in front of them.

The first movie ended at just after 8:30 and Elliot got Eli settled in bed while Olivia helped the older kids pick-up the dinner mess. When they were done they all ended up back in the living room to watch another movie.

After the second movie all the kids said good night to their dad and future step-mom and went to bed, leaving Elliot and Olivia alone in the living room. They stood up and Olivia started to pick up the blankets the kids had left strewn across the room, folding them and stacking them on the couch, while Elliot turned off the tv and put the DVD back in its case.

No more than 20 minutes later they were in bed. Elliot was lying on his back, his arm wrapped around Olivia who was curled up next to him, resting her head and one hand on his chest. They laid like that for a few minutes, before Liv heard, "You know, Liv, it's not impossible."

"What's not?"

"You being the kids step-mom."

"What are you saying, El?" she propped herself up, so she could look him in the eye.

"You know I love you Liv, I'm just saying that it's not unreasonable for the kids to think that we're going to get married. Maybe even in the near future?"

"I hadn't thought about it."

"You're lying. I can see it in your eyes. You love me and you've definitely thought about marrying me."

"So maybe I have, I just thought...," she trailed off.

"Thought what, Baby?" he brushed her hair away from her face.

"I didn't think you'd ever want to get married again, at least not to me," she explained looking down.

"Liv…Livvie…Come on, Liv look at me," he used a finger to tilt her chin so he could look her in the eye again. "What are you talking about? You're the only one I'd consider marrying. I love you, Olivia Benson. I've loved you for years, why can't you see that?"

"Because I waited years to hear you say it and now that you have I can't help wondering if you only think you love me because I got shot."

"God, Liv! I've loved you for years, why do you think I finally let Kathy go? I was just too afraid to tell you because I didn't know how you felt about me. Then, when you got shot, I realized I could lose you and didn't want to waste any more time, so, yea, I told you as soon as you woke up, but not because I decided after you were shot that I loved you. I told you right away because I didn't realize until after you were shot that I'd been being completely stupid. It was stupid of me to think you'd always be there, whenever I decided I was finally ready to tell you. I just stopped wasting time, I love you, Liv, don't ever doubt that," he cupped her cheek, wiping away her tears with his thumb.

"Oh, El."

"Livvie."

"I love you too, El. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. It's just…there's been a lot of people who've said they love me and then left. I just didn't want to hope…there's just so much more to lose this time, El. This time the person I'm afraid will walk away has my heart and it scares me."

"You don't need to be scared, Liv, I'm not going anywhere. There's a difference between me and everyone else: I love you. I'm not just saying it, I mean it. I'm also not going to walk away. It would mean leaving my heart behind and I don't think I'd survive. So, I'm serious when I say I love you with all my heart and one day I intend to marry you."

"Elliot," she smiled through her tears, "nothing would make me happier."

"Good," he pulled her close, holding her tightly, kissing her deeply. She returned the kiss, matching his passion.


	10. Chapter 10

Sunday morning, they woke up feeling safe in each other's arms, to the sounds of the kids making breakfast.

"Good morning, Beautiful, how'd you sleep?"

Liv looked up at him, kissed him briefly, "Good morning, Baby. I slept great." She moved to pull the blanket tighter around her naked body at the same time that Elliot tried to pull it back. "Elliot!"

He smirked, kissed her, and rolled over, so that was on top of her, kissing her again. "I love you, Liv." He rolled off of her, taking the blanket with him as he got up to get dressed, forcing her to do the same.

As they were about to walk out to join the kids in the kitchen, Elliot pulled Olivia to him. "I love you," he told her, bringing his lips down to hers.

"Love you too," she murmured against his lips, before breaking away and leaving the room.

He rejoined her moments later in the kitchen. She'd already found her way into helping Lizzie with the eggs.

"Hey Dad," Maureen greeted him from where she was frying bacon under Eli's close supervision.

"Hey Sweetie."

Kathleen and Dickie didn't even acknowledge their father. They were too busy arguing over who knew how to make the pancakes the _right _way. Elliot went over to intervene. Eventually, the argument was settled and the food was on the table. They were able to enjoy a nice breakfast together.

After breakfast the kids went to get dressed and the adults set to work cleaning up the kitchen. Elliot started washing dishes as Olivia cleared the table. When she'd finished with the table, she moved to helping Elliot dry.

"Dad. Liv," they heard Maureen calling from the living room.

"What?" they called back in unison, turning to each other, each of them wearing a grin.

"Come play Monopoly with us," Dickie answered.

Elliot and Olivia looked at each other, "Come one, El, let's go entertain those kids of yours." She led him to the living room. She took her place between Lizzie and Eli, while he sat down between Maureen and Dickie.

Almost two and a half hours later the game was just coming to close. Surprisingly, it was Eli who won and not by a small margin either.

"Can we play again?" Eli asked excitedly.

"Unfortunately, no," Elliot answered, leaning over to ruffle his young son's hair. "I have to get you guys fed and back to your mom's.

"Awwww," Eli whined.

Olivia laughed, standing up and reaching down to grab Eli's hand, "Why don't you come help me with lunch, Eli?"

The little boy grabbed her hand, his spirits suddenly restored, "Okay, Liv."

The pair left the room, neither of the noticing the silly grin that had spread across Elliot's face as he watched his girlfriend easily subduing his youngest son. He shook it off and helped his four older children clean up the board game.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Eli was seated on the counter while Olivia made mac and cheese.

"'Livia?"

"Yes, Eli?"

"Are you going to marry Daddy?"

"What? Why would you think that?"

"Because you love each other," Eli responded matter of factly. "So are you?"

"I don't know, we'll see."

Elliot walked into the room right then. "What don't you know?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around Olivia's waist and kissed her cheek.

"If she's gonna marry you," Eli answered and hopped down from the counter, going to find his older siblings.

"Maureen!"

His daughter appeared in the doorway within seconds, "Yea Dad?"

"Finish lunch," he growled pulling Olivia out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into his bedroom. Once there, he let go of her arm and closed the door before looking at her, "What the hell, Liv?" He was shouting, his face an unnatural shade of red.

He didn't scare her though; she'd seen him like this before. Actually, if she was being honest, she'd seen him a whole lot worse before. "What?" she shouted back, she figured if he could shout, so could she.

"_You don't know if you'll marry me?_ Come on, Olivia, we talked about this last night. I thought we'd taken care of all your concerns."

"Yea, we _talked _about it, Elliot, but we've only been dating for _three _days. It's not like we agreed to get married tomorrow."

"Olivia," he sounded slightly exasperated.

"What?" she sounded equally exasperated.

He took her hand and led her to the bed, pulling her to sit down next him, their hands in his lap. He looked at her, "You have to know that if you let me I _would_ marry you tomorrow. We may have only been dating for three days, but face it, Liv, we've been together for 12 years and we've grown a lot closer in the past three years, since my divorce."

"Being friends and having one conversation doesn't mean you want to marry me. So excuse me if I didn't automatically think you'd want to marry me. For all I know, you just wanted to get laid!"

"Olivia, we were never just friends. And I didn't tell you that I loved you or that I wanted to marry you just to _get laid._ You deserve so much more than that and I'm trying to give it to you, you just won't let me. I've told you how I feel. I love you so much and I want nothing more than to marry you. Now, I'm just waiting for you to tell me how you feel and what you want." He stood up and started walking to the door.

"El, wait," it was barely a whisper.

He turned back to her and waited for her to speak again.

"I do love you, Elliot," she walked to him and placed her hands on either side of his face. "And just so you know, should you ever ask me to marry you, I'll say yes."

He looped his arms around her waist, drawing her close, "Baby, it's not a matter of _if _I'll ask you, it's a matter of _when _I'll ask you." He lowered his lips to her and drew her in for a tender kiss that let her know just how serious he was, finally washing away all her doubts.


	11. Chapter 11

They finally broke apart and went back out to the kitchen. They walked in to find Maureen just finishing up with lunch and the younger kids gathered around the table, talking excitedly. Maureen looked up, eyeing her dad and his girlfriend suspiciously, "Everything alright?"

"Yea, why wouldn't it be?" Liv responded.

"Dad looked pretty upset when he dragged you out of here," she shrugged.

Elliot looked at the love of his life and smiled, then walked over to where Maureen was standing and kissed her on the top of her head, "We're fine, I promise."

"Okay, Dad."

Maureen walked away from her father to give her siblings their lunch. Elliot was watching his eldest child interact with her younger siblings when he felt Olivia's arms wrap her arms around his waist. He looked at her and saw that she was watching his children as well, so his gaze returned to the five young Stablers as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Your kids are really something," she said, her eyes never leaving the children as they laughed and talked happily.

He pressed a kiss to her temple, "They really are," he mumbled into her head.

They stood that way for a few seconds, before joining the kids at the table.

After eating their lunch the makeshift family piled into the van and headed to Kathy's. When they got there Kathy was waiting outside with a man that Elliot assumed was Chris. As everyone climbed out of the van, Kathy and the man approached. When they reached the van Kathy made the introductions, "Elliot, Olivia, this is Chris Miller. We've been dating for the past few months," then turning to Chris, "This is my ex-husband, Elliot Stabler, and his girlfriend, Olivia Benson." She turned back to Elliot and Olivia, "I am right in saying girlfriend, aren't I?"

Elliot wrapped his arm around Olivia's waist and pulled her close, both of them smiling, "Yes, you are."

Kathy returned their smiles. "Good," she replied with a firm nod.

A look of confusion graced Olivia's features causing Elliot to lean close and whisper in her ear, "I'll explain later."

She seemed to accept this and turned back to Kathy and Chris, "It's nice to meet you Chris."

Chris smiled, "It's nice to meet you too, Olivia. The kids talk about you all the time."

Olivia ducked her head shyly. Eli, who'd been listening intently to the adults, decided he'd been ignored long enough, "That's cause we love her," he informed Chris.

This caused Liv to blush and Chris's smile to fade, while Elliot and Kathy looked at each other awkwardly.

Eli didn't notice the awkward silence and quickly moved on to a new topic, "Mommy, can I have a pet shark? I asked Daddy and Liv, but they both said they couldn't have pets at their apartments, so can I have a pet shark here, since you have a house?"

Kathy's jaw dropped in shock, while the other three adults did their best to stifle their laughter. "I don't think so, Eli, sharks are kind of dangerous."

"Okay," he mumbled, sounding extremely dejected as he walked head down to the house.

"Poor kid," Liv laughed, "He really wanted that shark."

After the shared laugh, the older Stabler kids headed to the house and Kathy and Elliot exchanged keys. The four said their good-byes and headed their separate ways. Kathy and Chris disappeared back into the house as Elliot and Olivia got into his car and backed out of the driveway.

Once they were down the block Olivia turned to Elliot, "So what was going on with Kathy."

"Nothing. She's just happy that we're finally together."

"But she's always hated me."

"That was before the divorce. She doesn't see you as a threat anymore, so she's decided that she likes you."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"When Kathy and I were married, she was jealous of you because she thought I'd rather spend time at work with you, which was true, but to her meant that I was also sleeping with you. Her unwarranted belief led her to hate you. Then, when we got divorced and I didn't automatically start a relationship with you, she realized that I hadn't been sleeping with you after all and no longer had a reason to hate you."

"Okay, I understand why she doesn't hate me anymore, but why is she happy that we're together now."

"The kids like you and if there's one good thing about Kathy, it's that she loves her kids and just wants to see them happy. They're happy with you, Liv. Kathy wants the kids to like their step-mother, so she knows she couldn't ask for anyone better than you to take on that role."

"So she doesn't hate me because I wasn't sleeping with you while you were married and she's okay with us being together because the kids like me?"

"Yea, pretty much."

Olivia let the subject drop and turned to face forward again.

"What do you want to do today, Liv?"

"I don't know, I'm tired, this weekend's finally taken its toll.

"_Olivia,_" there was a hint of anger in his voice, "you were supposed to tell me if things got to be too much. You weren't supposed to overexert yourself. We could've taken it easy, we didn't have to let the kids run us ragged. You were shot, you need rest, to _heal_."

"Elliot, I'm fine, just tired. Besides, I had fun with your kids this weekend."

"Fine, but when we get home, you're taking a nap and that's final!"

"Elliot! You can't order be around! I'm not a child! Just take me home."

"Liv," he sighed, "That's not how I meant it. I just want you to be okay and get your rest. I love you, Liv. I don't want to see you get hurt, especially if you're the one hurting yourself."

"I'm not hurting myself, El. I'm fine and just so you know, I was going to take a nap anyway. I can take care of myself, I don't need you babying me." So maybe all of her doubts hadn't disappeared, she didn't believe that he _wanted_ to take care of her and wasn't just trying to be nice.

They'd arrived back at Elliot's apartment, so he parked and turned to face Olivia, who was looking at him intently, anger in her eyes, masking the pain. He hated that he'd upset her and caused her pain. "Liv, I'm sorry. I know you can take care of yourself and I don't mean to baby you, I'm just trying to show you that you don't always have to be so damn strong."

"Whatever," she got out of the car and started walking toward the building.

Elliot raced after her, when he reached her he grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, "Olivia, talk to me."

"Let go of me Elliot."

"No, Liv, not until you tell me what's really going on."

"I just don't need a babysitter, _Elliot_."

"God, Olivia, I'm not trying to be your babysitter, just your boyfriend."

"Can we please do this later, I just want to go to sleep," there was now a sense of urgency in her voice.

Elliot realized how pale she'd become over the course of their argument and grew concerned. "Yea, come on Livvie," he slid is arm to her waist and guided her toward the building. After the first flight of stairs, she was leaning so heavily against him that he couldn't bear to watch her suffer any longer, so he just picked her up and cradled her in his arms.

"Elliot, you don't have to carry me. I can walk," her voice was faint.

"I know, but you don't have to."

To his surprise she didn't argue with him, just twined her arms around his neck and let him carry her the rest of the way. Once they got into his apartment, he carried her straight to his bedroom and laid her down on the bed. She was half asleep by this point, so he brushed her hair out of her face and started to take off her shoes.

"I can take care of myself."

"I know, Baby." He set her shoes on the floor, kicked of his own, and proceeded to climb into bed behind her. She turned to face him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest. Elliot felt her relax against him and tucked the covers tightly around them. "I love you, Olivia."

"Love you," she murmured against his chest, half-asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Elliot dozed from time to time, but Olivia slept soundly until it was time for dinner. As she woke up she was glad to find that Elliot was still holding her tightly. She groaned and turned her head into his chest trying to avoid the light. Elliot chuckled softly, unable to believe how cute she was, he started to run one hand up and down her back, "Baby?"

"Mmmmm."

"You hungry?"

She nodded against his chest.

"We have to get up then."

"Uggggggghhhhhhh."

"You can either get up or I can carry you again," he threatened.

She sat up and got out of bed, but not because she was opposed to him carrying her, so much as she wanted to prove that she could take care of herself.

By the time they made it to the living room, she was more awake and realized she was feeling a lot better than she had earlier. She hated to admit, even to herself, but she thought that maybe, just maybe, Elliot had been right-maybe she had tried to do too much this weekend, maybe she should have spent more time resting. Oh well, to her it was worth it, she loved his kids and spent as much time as possible with them. Apparently at the expense of her own health, she thought wryly.

Elliot made sandwiches for dinner and then they both settled down on the couch to eat and watch a football game that he'd DVRed earlier in the week. When they were finished Liv stood up and took both plates into the kitchen, only to return and find that Elliot had turned off the game and was waiting for her expectantly. She wondered what he was up to.

"We need to talk Olivia."

Uh-oh, he'd called her _Olivia _instead of _Liv _this wasn't good. "What about?" she asked hesitantly.

"What happened earlier."

"What do you mean?" she asked as she finally sat down beside him.

"Your whole 'I don't need to be taken care of, you're not by babysitter, I can do it myself' attitude problem."

"Oh."

"Yea, oh. Now what's going on? And don't lie to me, you know I can tell when you're lying."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before speed-talking her way through an explanation, "I'm sorry. I'm just so used to taking care of myself. I didn't think that you'd actually _want _to take care of me. I figured you had a greater interest in making sure your kids had a good time and I didn't want to be the reason they didn't. I know you love me and I love you too, but I'm not used to someone loving me or caring enough to take care of me," she stopped for air, then continued, "I didn't want to cause you any trouble, so I tried to do too much and didn't want to admit to anyone, especially you, that I was _tired."_

"'Livia, Livvie," he said sadly and he pulled her into his lap. "I want to take care of you and eventually I'm going to prove that to you. I love you, always have, always will," he noticed there were tears in her eyes and he hated the fact that she felt no one had ever loved her, but knew he always would. She was his and he was hers, he just needed to convince her of that. "Taking care of you isn't any trouble and I _always _want to know when something's bothering you-no matter what it is," he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Liv. I couldn't live without you, that's why I worry about you. I want to make sure you're okay, it hurts me when you aren't. I'll always love you and take care of you, you just have to let me."

Olivia wiped the tears from her eyes and then twined her arms around his neck. "El, thank-you."

He looked puzzled, "For what?"

"Everything. For loving me. For taking care of me. For _wanting _me." she kissed him sweetly. "I love you. Now, can we please go to bed, the man I love, says I need my rest."

He smiled, but didn't answer her. He simply picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. They quickly changed and climbed into bed. Elliot wrapped one arm around Olivia and pulled her against him protectively, she placed her hand on top of his, holding it in place. She smiled to herself, loving the feeling of being loved and finally knowing without a doubt that the man she loved really did love her. He smiled too, knowing that he'd convinced her; she'd always be stubborn, but she'd also trust him enough to be the one to be there always.


	13. Chapter 13

Elliot woke up Monday morning to find the bed next to him empty. He'd hardly had time to wonder where Olivia was when he heard the shower start. Elliot glanced at the clock on the bedside table, it was barely 6:30. He groaned, threw back the covers, and got out of bed.

Olivia heard a knock on the bathroom door, but before she could answer Elliot just walked in.

"Olivia," he sounded like he was still half-asleep.

She smiled, "Huh?"

"What are you doing up? You should be sleeping."

"I'm getting ready to go to work."

"I can see that, but why?"

"Because we have to be there in an hour."

"No, _I_ have to be there in an hour. _You _need to get some rest so you can go to work _tomorrow_."

"_Elllllliottttttt_," she sounded annoyed.

"_Olllllivvvvvia_," he matched her tone. "One day, that's all I'm asking. Take one day to do absolutely nothing but rest. We don't want a repeat on yesterday."

She turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel around herself. "Fine, but only because I love you and don't feel like arguing."

"Good," he stepped forward to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. They stood like that for a while before he kissed her lips and told her, "I need to shower before work, will you please go back to bed?"

She smirked, "Okay, since you asked so nicely."

He smiled and they went about their business. When he walked out of the bathroom 20 minutes later he was surprised, but pleased to find that she had actually done what he's asked and was sleeping peacefully. He finished getting ready for work, but before he left he made one last trip to the bedroom to check on the love of his life. She was still asleep, so he walked across the room and gently kissed her forehead whispering, "I love you, Livvie."

"Love you too, El," came the almost inaudible reply.

"Hey dude," Fin greeted as Elliot walked into the precinct.

"How's Liv?" Munch added.

"When will she be back?" Cragen asked as he joined the group.

"Liv's fine. She's still a little tired, so she stayed home to rest. She'll be back tomorrow." He walked to the locker room and put his stuff away. Just before he was able to sit down Cragen called for him.

"Elliot, I need to see you in my office now."

Elliot walked into Cragen's office and shut the door behind him. "What's up Captain?"

"Shall I presume that you and Benson are officially together now?"

"Yes. I did what you said and stopped wasting time. I told her how I felt as soon as she woke up."

"I'm happy for the both of you. You think you'll be able to continue to be partners."

"Yes sir."

"Good, then I'll leave things alone, but if I feel that you two can't handle it I won't hesitate to assign you different partners, got it?"

"Got it."

"That's all."

Elliot turned to leave and was about to open the door, when he was stopped by Cragen.

"Oh, Elliot, there's one more thing before you go."

Elliot turned back to the Captain, "Yea?"

"If you hurt her, I _will _kill you."

Elliot smiled, "I won't hurt her sir, I love her."

"Good, now get back to work."

Elliot left the office and settled in for a boring day of paper work.

The team managed to get off on time for once and Elliot was home by 6:30. He found Olivia asleep, only now she was on the couch. He smiled to himself and put his things away, before approaching her. When he reached the couch, he crouched down and tucked the strands of hair that had fallen across Liv's face behind her ear. "Liv, sweetheart, I'm home."

She started to stir and mumbled something incomprehensible, so Elliot tried again, "Honey, wake up, I'm home."

This time she sat up, obviously wishing she was still asleep, "You made me stay home to rest and now you're telling me I have to get up, would you make up your mind?"

He laughed, "I missed you too."

She reached forward and pulled him into a hug, "I did miss you." She kissed him and then abruptly pulled away, "But, seriously, did you have to wake me up?"

"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Okay, what's up?" she released him and he moved to sit next to her on the couch.

"I talked to Cragen today…about us."

"And…?"

"He already knew that I was going to tell you I love you, so he asked if we were officially together and I told him we were." Liv nodded her agreement. "Then he asked if I thought we could still work together."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I thought we could."

"Good, anything else."

"He said he'd let us continue to be partners unless he thought our relationship was affecting our partnership. Oh and he told me that if I hurt you, he'd kill me."

She laughed at his last comment, but stopped when he kissed her, pulling back only to say "I won't hurt you Liv."

"I know, El," she told him as she pulled him to her for another kiss.


	14. Chapter 14

What was supposed to be just an innocent, little kiss, quickly became heated and the couple let themselves be carried away. At some point, neither was quite sure when, they had ended up back in Elliot's bed.

Eventually, they made their way back out to the living room and had dinner, before settling in on the couch to watch tv until it was time for bed.

The next morning they left for work together, Olivia carrying the bag she'd brought for the weekend, Elliot carrying the bag he'd packed for the few days he was going to be spending at her place.

A short time later they walked into the station hand in hand, but let their hands fall back to their sides as they stepped off the elevator. They sat at their desks and did mindless paper work while they waited for the rest of the team to arrive. When they heard the elevator doors open, they stopped what they were doing and turned to face the newcomer's, finding Fin, Munch and Cragen walking into the squadroom together.

After the group had said their hello's, Munch asked, "So how you feeling Liv?"

"Fine, still a little sore at times though."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but I'm going to anyway," Cragen began, "You're on desk duty for at least the next eight weeks."

Olivia groaned, "I know."

The other detectives all smirked, knowing how much she'd hate it.

The team stood around talking for a few minutes and then finally got to work. A couple of calls came in, but Olivia stayed put under a mountain of paper work.

"Olivia, could you come here for a moment," Cragen called from his office just before lunch.

Olivia walked into the office, shut the door, and sat down in a chair in front of her Captain's desk, "What's up, Captain?"

"I hear congratulations are in order."

She smiled and nodded.

"Did Elliot tell you about the conversation he and I had yesterday?"

"Yes, he did."

"Then I won't waste my breath repeating myself, just know that meant what I said."

"Yes sir." She stood up to leave.

"Don't run this time."

"Excuse me?" she turned to face him again.

"You heard me."

She nodded and went back to her desk to play secretary.

Elliot and Olivia got to her place early the next morning, both dead on their feet. They barely had enough energy to change before falling into bed and getting the little bit of sleep they could before they had to get up and go back to work.

They soon established a routine: they got up, showered together, had breakfast, went to work, at the end of the day Liv would wait for El and they would go back to whoever's apartment they were currently staying at, eat dinner, watch tv or make love, go to bed, and start all over.

The only think that broke up their routine was the weekends. If they had the kids they spent their time at the park, movies, mall, or doing anything else the kids wanted to do. If they were alone they spent the day relaxing, just being with each other and enjoying their relationship.

Olivia couldn't have been happier. She was finally with the man she had secretly loved for years and he loved her back. To top it all off, his kids seemed genuinely happy for them and his ex-wife was actually being nice to her. She was glad she'd finally let Elliot convince her that he was serious about them and their relationship.

As for Elliot, he was just as happy. He was spending every day with the love of his life and she'd finally accepted the fact that he honestly loved her and wasn't going to do anything to hurt her. Not to mention the fact that she got along great with his kids. He finally had the family he'd always wanted: Olivia and his five amazing kids. He just needed to make it official.


	15. Chapter 15

The two months passed quicker than Olivia would have thought possible. In that time she'd managed to finish her paper work, as well as Elliot's, and put a sizeable dent in Fin's. Munch, she figured, could deal with his own paper work. She'd seen the size of his pile and hadn't even wanted to attempt to start it.

She'd been back in the field for about three months, meaning she had been dating Elliot for just over five. This was officially her longest relationship in a very long time. Even more remarkable was the fact that she was happy and didn't want to run.

They'd long since proven to the Captain that they could work together without their personal relationship interfering, so they now sat next to each other, staring at the list of evidence and suspects. It was a child-trafficking case. A group had been kidnapping kids between the ages of two and twelve and then selling them as sex slaves. They'd only found out about the ring when one of the kids, an eight-year-old girl had escaped. She'd collapsed and been taken to the hospital, where the abuse had been discovered and SVU had been called.

On the third day, when they'd gotten absolutely nowhere and were out of leads, Cragen decided that Elliot would go undercover. He'd infiltrate under the claim that he wanted to purchase a nine-year-old girl. When the girl was dropped off, he and his back-up would make an arrest and, hopefully, get the perp or perps to give them the names of the other people involved.

He was assigned the alias James Lein and scheduled to move into his new apartment the next day. He spent the evening packing and reassuring Olivia.

He was bent over a suitcase, packing his clothes. "I'll be fine Liv, it's just a couple weeks."

She was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching him. "I know, but still, I'm going to miss you," she said sadly.

"I know." He stopped packing and went to sit next to her, taking her hands in his. "I'll miss you too, but I have to try to save those kids."

"I want to save them too, but I'll still miss you."

"Good," he smirked trying to lighten the mood-it didn't work, so he grew serious again. "Hey, the kids are still coming over this weekend though."

"Really?"

"Yea, these days there more excited to see you than me."

She smiled, "I know how they feel, I'm getting kind of sick of you too."

"Hey!" he exclaimed in mock offense.

She smirked and that was all it took for him to push her backwards onto the bed and hover over her, his nose almost touching hers. "What was that for?" she laughed.

"I'm going to prove that you'll miss me." With that he kissed her and almost immediately her arms wrapped around his neck.

The packing was officially abandoned for the night, Elliot had found a better way to spend his time.

Elliot woke up early the next morning to finish packing. When he was done, he walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. He took out a small box and packed it as well, knowing he wouldn't need it, but not wanting her to find it while he was gone.

She woke up just before it was time for him to leave and met him at the door. They kissed, "I love you, El."

"I love you, Baby."

They broke apart and he left for what was supposed to be only to weeks. As she closed the door behind him she felt a tear roll down her face, but she made no move to wipe it away. Finally, she walked back to his bedroom and got ready for work, taking all of her things with her, knowing there was no way she could stay in his apartment without him there.


	16. Chapter 16

Olivia walked into the squadroom, obviously depressed. Fin and Munch spent the day avoiding her, fearing that she'd snap at them over the slightest annoyance.

She spent the rest of the week basically just going through the actions of living. Finally, Friday rolled around and she went to pick-up Elliot's kids after work.

Just before 6:30 she pulled into Kathy's driveway and as usual the kids came running out to meet her. Maureen and Kathleen weren't there, but they rarely were, since they were adults and didn't live at home anymore. She welcomed the hugs from Dickie, Lizzie and Eli though and smiled genuinely for the first time in almost four days. The kids tossed their things in her car and climbed in, as Kathy walked out to say hello.

"Hi, Olivia."

"Hey, Kathy."

"How are you, you know with Elliot being gone? I remember how hard that can be."

Olivia smiled sadly, "I'm fine."

"Okay, well, have fun with the kids this weekend. I'll see you guys on Sunday."

"See you Sunday." She got into her car and they drove off.

"Kids we're going to stay at my place this weekend, is that okay?"

Lizzie studied her dad's girlfriend carefully, realizing that Olivia couldn't stay at her dad's apartment, so she answered carefully, "Yea, sure Liv, that'd be great." She reached over and placed her hand on Olivia's shoulder, "We'll have fun this weekend, okay?"

Olivia nodded her consent, biting her lower lip.

They got to Olivia's apartment and everyone took their bags upstairs. Once they were inside Olivia explained the sleeping arrangements. "Lizzie and Eli can share the guestroom, Dickie can sleep in mine, and I'll take the couch, okay?"

Dickie protested, "No, Liv, I can sleep on the couch, you don't need to give up your room."

Olivia started to object, but Dickie raised a hand to stop her, "I'd really rather sleep on the couch," he told her firmly.

She just nodded and the makeshift family dispersed to put their things away. Olivia returned to the living room a few minutes later with blankets and an extra pillow for Dickie. She placed them on the arm of the couch and went to find the kids in the kitchen. When she walked in Lizzie had the phone in her hand and was arguing with her brothers about what kind of pizza to order.

"Cheese," Lizzie argued."

"Pepperoni," Dickie demanded.

"Sausage," Eli shouted trying to be heard over the twins bickering.

"Cheese."

"Pepperoni."

"Sausage."

Olivia shook her head and went over to break up the fight. She took the phone from Lizzie, "Come on guys, it's just a pizza."

"Yea, but they won't listen to me," Eli whined.

Olivia sighed heavily, "Okay, how about this: one cheese, one half-pepperoni, half-sausage."

The kids agreed and went to pick out a movie, while Olivia called to place their order. They started the movie, they'd actually agreed on _Spy Kids_, and waited for the pizzas to arrive. Dickie sat in one corner of the couch, Olivia in the other. She had Eli curled up in her lap and Lizzie sitting on the floor in front of her.

When the food arrived, they paused the movie and dished up. Soon they were back in the living room, Eli joined his sister on the floor and they started the movie again. After the movie, they cleaned up the mess from dinner and Olivia asked, "What do you guys want to do now?"

"Monopoly," came Eli's response.

Dickie and Lizzie both groaned.

Eli looked up at Olivia expectantly with his big blue eyes that reminded her so much of his father. She really missed Elliot and looking at Eli, she really couldn't say no. "How about it guys?" she turned to the twins. "Unless one of you has a better idea?"

They looked at each other, sighed, and walked back to the living room, defeated.

Soon the twins had forgotten that they hadn't wanted to play. They were laughing and telling Liv about the drama, that apparently was the life of a high school senior, trying to outdo each other with their silly anecdotes. Eli was doing his best to compete with his own stories about his second grade art class and the kid who ate glue. Olivia had to admit that she _was _having fun, Elliot's kids were great.

Lizzie ended up winning this time, annoying her brothers immensely. Olivia laughed at the excited expression on Lizzie's face and the seriously annoyed expressions on her brothers'. They cleaned up and everyone headed to bed.

Later, Lizzie woke up to the sound of muffled crying coming from Olivia's room. A glance at the clock told her it was nearly 3:00 in the morning, she threw back the blankets, careful not to disturb Eli, who was still sleeping soundly, and walked across the hall to Olivia's room. She entered quietly and approached the bed. She laid down next to Olivia, their foreheads touching, "He'll be back soon."

Olivia struggled to stop crying and then nodded, signaling that she understood what Lizzie meant.

Lizzie stayed with Liv the rest of the night, just to make sure she was okay.


	17. Chapter 17

Lizzie woke up again a few hours later, she had something to do before Olivia woke up. She walked back to the guest room to grab her cell phone, careful not to wake Eli, then going to the kitchen so she could make her calls without disturbing anyone else. She quickly dialed the number of her oldest sister and waited for Maureen to pick-up.

"Jesus, Lizzie," came the greeting, from a very sleepy, not quite awake, Maureen. "It's…6:00 in the damn morning. This better be good," she snarled.

"It's about Liv."

"What? What's wrong?" Maureen suddenly sounded very alert.

"She misses dad. She was crying last night, woke me up."

"Wow, hmmm."

"What are we gonna do? He's gonna be gone at least another week."

"We're going to distract her. I'll call Kathleen and we'll be over around 8:00 to go to breakfast. After that, well…I don't really know yet, we just need to distract her."

"Okay, it almost sounds like a plan."

"Don't be a smart-aleck. Just make sure everyone's ready to go. Oh! And don't tell Liv we're coming."

The sisters hung up and went about getting ready to distract the hell out of their dad's girlfriend, best friend and partner.

Lizzie walked to the living room and shook Dickie awake.

"Go away Liz, it's too early."

"Wake up Richard. I need to talk to you. Now!"

"Fine, I'm awake. What do you want?" he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Liv was crying last night because she misses Dad, so I called Maureen. She and Kathleen are going to be here at 8:00 to go to breakfast like we usually do with Dad and Liv. You need to get up and get ready. I'm going to go wake Eli and Liv up," she started walking down the hall toward the guest room. "By the way, Maureen said not to tell Liv they're coming," she called over her shoulder.

"Uh huh," Dickie groaned as he dragged himself to his feet, silently cursing the early hour.

Lizzie entered Eli's room and laid down next to him on the bed. She smoothed back his hair, "Elllliiiii," she cooed, waking him gently.

"Wha?"

"Time to get up, we're going to breakfast in a little bit."

"Is Livvie coming?"

"Of course."

"Yay!" the little boy bounded out of bed to get ready causing his older sister to smile at his obvious affection for Olivia.

She crossed the hall, took a deep breath, and went to wake up Liv, thinking she'd be the toughest of the three to drag out of bed. She was, therefore, surprised to find Olivia already awake and staring at the ceiling. Lizzie crawled onto the bed and sat down facing Olivia. The pair sat in silence for a few moments, before Olivia broke the silence, "Good Morning, Lizzie."

"Morning, Olivia."

"Sorry about last night…or was it this morning," she attempted to smile.

"It was this morning and it's okay. Are you alright?"

"Not really, but crying's stupid. He's gone undercover before, I should be used to it by now."

"It wasn't stupid. He hasn't gone under since you started dating. It's different when your boyfriend goes under."

"I guess," Olivia agreed reluctantly.

"Why don't you get up and we can all go to breakfast, the boys are already up." It was almost 7:15 at this point, so Lizzie figured there was no way all four of them would be ready to go by the time Kathleen and Maureen got there.

"Okay."

Liv got up and headed to her bathroom to shower and Lizzie headed to the other bathroom. Dickie was just finishing his shower, so Lizzie decided she might as well take hers.

Thirty minutes later, Olivia and the twins were gathered in the kitchen drinking coffee, while Eli was sprawled on the living room floor watching _Scooby-Doo!_. After their coffee Olivia and Lizzie went to finish getting ready and Dickie joined Eli.

At 8:00 sharp there was a knock at the door, "I'll get it!" Dickie yelled down the hall Liv and Lizzie. He let his sisters in and Liv walked out of her room, having just finished putting on her make-up.

"Hey girls."

"Hey Liv," they said in near unison as they wrapper her in a hug.

"We were just about to go to breakfast, want to join us?"

Lizzie joined the group standing by the door, "Are we ready to go?"

"Well, hello to you too," Maureen teased as Olivia answered, "Yes. Come on Eli."

The group made it through the day and the older girls left Olivia's apartment around 10:00. Sunday passed quietly and Olivia dropped the three youngest Stablers back at Kathy's around 2:00.

They all piled out of the car, hugged and said their good-bye's. Olivia waved to Kathy, who was waiting just inside the front door, and drove away.


	18. Chapter 18

The two weeks Elliot was supposed to be gone came and went. Olivia had grown used to the loneliness, but was anxious for him to come back. She had something she desperately needed to tell him. Finally, in the middle of week six, she barged into Cragen's office, slamming the door behind her, "What the hell?"

"Benson?"

"Where's Elliot? He was supposed to be back a month ago," she collapsed into a chair.

"I know, Olivia, but he's not done yet. He's okay though."

She nodded, grateful, at least, for that, "When will he be back?"

"I don't know, Olivia," he said sadly.

To Olivia it felt like someone had punched her in the stomach, but all she said, "Oh, um, I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back in a little bit."

"Take your time."

Olivia left his office, grabbed her coat, and walked out of the precinct. She was hit by the crisp October air as soon as she stepped outside. She turned left and just started walking, not really sure where she was going. As she walked she thought about Elliot. It'd been almost 7 months since they'd started dating, which would've made her ecstatic, had she not been so depressed about his not being there for the last month and a half. Now on top of missing him, she had something to tell him. Something incredibly important.

She eventually made her way back to the precinct and went back to filling out DD-5's, doing her best to ignore the questioning stares of Fin and Munch and the pitying one from Cragen. She thought again about her secret and considered telling Cragen, maybe he could bring Elliot back. She shook her head, she couldn't tell Cragen. She couldn't tell anyone before she told Elliot and it didn't look like that was going to be happening anytime soon. Olivia's thoughts were interrupted when a teenage girl walked into the squadroom. Her clothes were torn and her body was covered in bruises and cuts, "Somebody, help me, _plllllleeeeaaaasssseee,"_ then she fainted.

Olivia and Fin managed to catch the girl just before she hit the floor. They sat her down in Olivia's chair and she came to almost immediately. They made sure she was okay and then took her to the hospital.

The rest of the day was spent gathering evidence and talking to the girl about her experience.

It was well after midnight when the team finally left the precinct, vowing to return at 7:00 and continue.

Olivia ran her hand through her hair and sighed as she walked down the hallway to the door of her apartment. She let herself in, kicked off her shoes and flopped down on the couch. She just didn't have the energy to walk _all the way _to her bedroom. Almost immediately she was asleep.

By 5:30 she was awake and dragging her feet toward her bedroom to take a shower and get dressed for yet another grueling day.

She walked into the squadroom right on time carrying four cups of coffee, three of which she handed out to Fin, Munch and Cragen. They drank their coffee as they discussed the case and looked for new leads.

They spent the next three days on the case, before finally finding the guy. Casey and Alex spent the next few weeks trying to get court date scheduled and motions passed. Then, the team began taking turns testifying in court on the girl's case. Those not testifying, were kept busy with new cases and mountains of paper work.


	19. Chapter 19

For the next few weeks Olivia kept busy at work and spent every other weekend with Elliot's kids. It took all she had not to tell anyone her secret. She was excited, nervous, and really wishing Elliot was there to tell her everything would be okay.

It was early December now and Olivia had spent every night for the last three months alone. She'd gotten used to it. This evening she was once again eating bad Chinese take-out and watching crappy made-for-tv movies, every once in a while turning to look out the window at the lightly falling snow. Finally, she got off the couch and forced herself to fall asleep in bed for a change, hopefully to wake up with the awful crick in her neck that she was growing accustomed to from many nights spent sleeping on the couch.

Her sleep was rudely interrupted a few hours later by someone obnoxiously pounding on her door. She opened her eyes to look at the clock, barely 4:30, "What the hell?" she groaned inwardly. She hauled herself out of bed and dragged herself to the door, fully prepared to kill whoever was on the other side.

She threw open the door and was shocked to see Elliot standing on the other side. She gasped, taking in his black eye and the sling on his left arm, "Elliot!"

"Olivia," he smiled at her. That was all the encouragement she needed, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He did his best to pull her closer with his uninjured, right arm.

Moments later she broke away and pulled him in out of the hallway, "What happened? Are you okay?" She moved to get a closer look at his eye.

"I'm fine Baby," he cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply. "Now, I'm great."

They walked over to the couch and sat down next to each other, their hands tightly clasped between them. "I'm sorry about the time Liv, but I couldn't wait to see you."

"It's fine, El, I'm just glad you're finally back."

"Me too, however, it is only 4:30 in the morning, so how about we go to bed and catch up later?"

"Sounds good to me."

They stood up and Liv led the way to her bedroom. Once there Elliot quickly changed and they crawled into bed. Olivia quickly curled up next to Elliot's right side and rested her head on his chest, sighing with contentment. Elliot instantly wrapped his arm securely around her waist and kissed the top of her head, "I love you, Olivia," he whispered against her hair.

"I love you too, Elliot," she mumbled back, her warm breath tickling his chest.

They went to sleep, both of them happy for the first time in nearly three months.

Olivia was the first to wake in the morning and could hardly believe that she was finally waking up in Elliot's arms. Then it dawned on her, she could finally tell him. She just had to figure out how to tell him. Olivia started to panic, what if he got mad, what if he left, what would she do then? A single tear rolled down her face.

Elliot woke up, glad to find Olivia still curled up next to him, her head still resting on his chest. He felt something wet hit his chest and knew instinctively that it must be a tear. "What's wrong? Isn't she happy that I'm back? Did I already screw up the best thing in my life by being gone too long?" he wondered, before tipping her chin up so he could look her in the eye. "Livvie, Sweetheart, what's wrong?

" You're gonna hate me!" she threw back the covers and bolted.

He caught up to her in the kitchen and stopped just inside the doorway. Elliot looked at Olivia, who had her back toward him, using her hands to brace herself against the counter. Her head hung low and her shoulders were slumped, she looked completely defeated. He walked over to her and leaned back against the counter next to her. "Liv, I could _never _hate you. _Never. _I love you, Baby."


	20. Chapter 20

She glanced over at him and then back at the counter, before she finally turned her head to look at him. He met her gaze and she saw the concern in his eyes, giving her hope that everything would be all right. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Elliot, I'm…I'm pregnant."

He stood there for a second, shocked by what she'd just revealed. Then he smiled and used his good arm to pull her away from the counter, against his chest. "That's great, Olivia!" he kissed her, but pulled away abruptly, "That is great, right?"

She looked up at him, amazed that he wasn't upset with her. "Yea, El, it's great."

He kissed her again and she responded eagerly. When they finally pulled apart, he asked, "Why did you think I would hate you?"

She stepped away from him, "Because you already have five kids and we never talked about having more."

"Just because we didn't talk about it, doesn't mean I didn't think about it. Liv, I love you, of course, I wanted to have kids with you," he pulled her back to him, "Maybe, it's a little sooner than planned, but now we don't have to wait as long." He kissed her forehead and then left the room.

She stood in the kitchen, wondering what the hell was going on. Elliot claimed to be happy that she was pregnant, but then left to do God knows what.

Elliot was frantically searching through his bag, which had been long-forgotten next to the couch. His fingers finally found what he was looking for, he grasped it tightly and headed back to the kitchen. Olivia was fixing her breakfast now, Elliot walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch. He tossed the small box back into his bag and put his head in his hands. "This isn't right, not how it should be. Olivia deserves better than this," he silently beat himself up. He didn't even consider that Olivia might have heard him enter and then leave the kitchen.

Olivia had heard him though. She took a deep breath and walked out to the living room to see him on the couch with his head in his hands and a pained expression on his face. She shook her head sadly and went to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She curled up on the bed, "So much for being happy," she said quietly to herself.

"Shit," he said out loud when he heard the bedroom door shut and realized that she must've heard him in to kitchen and come to the wrong conclusion. Elliot hurried to her bedroom, knocked lightly on the door, and then walked in without waiting for her to reply. "Olivia, baby, come on, talk to me," he pleaded as he sat behind her on the bed, silently cursing his injured arm because it rendered him unable to hold her properly.

"Go away, El. Go home."

"Liv, I'm not going anywhere. Now, what's wrong?"

"You lied to me," she explained matter-of-factly.

"About what?" he asked feigning ignorance.

"Being happy about the baby," he could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Livvie, I am happy."

She sat up and looked him in the eyes, "Stop lying. I saw you on the couch, you looked about as far from happy as humanly possible."

"I was upset, but not about the baby."

She didn't look like she fully believed as she asked, "Then why are you upset."

"Because I had something to ask you, but I wasn't sure how you'd take it or even if you believe that I was sincere."

"What were you going to ask me?"

"Wait here." He stood and walked to the door, before turning back, "I _will _be back, I just need to get something."

She nodded.

Elliot quickly found the box again and was soon back sitting next to Olivia. "I was going to ask you a couple months ago, but I got stuck on that damn undercover case. Then, you told me about the baby and I figured that would be the perfect time, but I didn't want you to think that I was only asking because of the baby. So, when you saw me in the living room I was beating myself up for not asking you sooner and trying to figure out how to ask you without you thinking I was just trying to do the right thing. Liv, I love you. You have no idea how much I love you. I was thinking about how you deserve better that to have to wonder whether or not I wanted to marry you just because of the baby. I was wishing I'd asked you before you found out you were pregnant," he paused briefly, "Olivia, I wanted to give you this," he handed her the box, "and ask you to be my wife."

She took the box from him and opened it to see a beautiful engagement ring. Her eyes grew wide and she gasped, looking up at Elliot, "Oh, El…," she trailed off.

"Olivia Jennifer Benson, will you marry me? I love you more than anything in the world and can't imagine my life without you."

"Yes, I'll marry you. I love you, Elliot David Stabler." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply. When they finally broke apart, he took the ring from her and slid it onto her finger.


	21. Chapter 21

They didn't emerge from the bedroom for nearly an hour. They sat down in the kitchen to have bagels for breakfast, having already called Cragen to tell him they wouldn't be in again until Monday, giving them three days to relax.

Elliot looked across the table at his fiancée and couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. He cleared his throat, "So, you never told me how far along are you?"

She looked up, "About three months."

"That means you got pregnant…" his eyes grew wide with the sudden realization.

"The night before you left," she finished for him.

"Wow."

She smiled, "Talk about timing."

He nodded, "Have you told the kids or anyone at work?"

"No. I wanted to tell you first."

"I'm glad, I want to tell them together."

"Okay. How do you think the kids will take it?"

"They'll be ecstatic, especially Eli. He doesn't like being the youngest."

She looked relieved.

"You know, Liv, we're going to need to find a bigger place. We can't continue living in two places, especially once we're married. The kids are already crowded when they come over and the baby's going to need a room. Not to mention any other children we have."

She nodded her agreement, "Speaking of getting married, when do we want to have the wedding?"

"Let's see, baby's due in June, right?" She nodded, so he continued, "So, the sooner the better."

"What about February?"

"Valentine's Day?"

"Perfect."

"Can we have it planned by then?" he asked.

"I think so."

"Okay, February 14th it is."

They finished their breakfast and cleaned up what little mess there was. Elliot and Olivia spent the rest of the day making up for lost time.

Eventually, 6:00 rolled around and since it was their weekend with the kids, they walked down to Olivia's car and she drove them to Kathy's.

As usual Lizzie, Dickie and Eli came running out to greet Liv, but stopped when they saw their dad get out of the car. They only hesitated briefly, before they took off running again, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaddddd!" they cried in unison. He'd barely made it around to Olivia's side of the car when they were engulfed in a group hug.

Kathy heard the commotion and had come outside to see what was going on. She walked over to join the group that was just separating from their excited hug. "Hey Elliot, nice to see you're back."

"Hi Kathy."

"What happened to your arm?"

"Same thing that happened to my eye, wrong place at the wrong time. During the final bust of the case there was a fight and my shoulder was dislocated. I only have to wear the sling for about another week."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay."

Suddenly, Lizzie grabbed Olivia's left hand, "Oh. My. God! You guys are getting married."

Olivia beamed at Elliot, who was smiling back at her, as Kathy, Dickie and Eli all moved to get a look at the ring.

"Way to go Dad," Dickie said, grinning.

"Congratulations, Liv," Lizzie hugged Olivia tightly.

"Cool, Livvie's gonna be our step-mom!" Eli exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"Congratulations to both of you," Kathy said, looking genuinely happy for the couple.

"Thanks Kathy," Elliot responded, then to the kids, "So, you guys are okay with this."

Dickie looked at his siblings before responding for all three of them, "Duh, Dad. We love Liv."

"Well, good. Let's go then."


	22. Chapter 22

Olivia drove the four Stablers to a nearby pizzeria for dinner. They found a table and ordered their food, while they were waiting the kids took turns filling Elliot in on what they'd been up to for the past three months.

Lizzie told her dad about her new boyfriend and the play her college drama group had put on in November. "We put on _Romeo and Juliet_, I just played one of the guests at the ball. All of the bigger parts went to seniors. Liv came to see me, though, and said I did okay."

"She did great," Olivia confirmed.

Elliot found Olivia's hand under the table and squeezed it in gratitude, before lacing his fingers through hers and listening to Lizzie continued, "I actually really like college, well, except for my roommate."

Dickie interrupted his twin, "I like my roommate, but my classes are harder than I thought they would be. Liv helps me study though."

"Yea and to think that I actually thought I was done with Freshman English, College Algebra, and Basic Biology, when I graduated college," Liv chuckled.

"Without you're help I'd be failing."

"Well, then, I'm glad to do it."

Eli finished up, by telling his dad all about the third grade, "The girl who sits behind me pokes me with her pencil all day," he whined.

"That just means she has a crush on you," Elliot smirked.

"Hey! That's what Olivia said!"

Liv just looked at Elliot and shrugged.

"Daddy, did Liv tell you she came to my class for Career Day? Mom came too."

"You did, Liv?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I? It was fun, wasn't it Eli?"

"Duh! Everybody loved me. My mom's a nurse and my dad's fiancée's a cop. I have the coolest family. After you left, all my friend's said they wished their dads were dating you."

Just as everyone had finished catching Elliot up on the last three months, Maureen and Kathleen appeared beside the table. Elliot stood up to hug his oldest two daughters. "What are two doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you…?"

Kathleen interrupted, laughing, "We get it Dad. Liv called to tell us you were back and said to meet you guys here for dinner because you guys had something big that you wanted to tell us all together."

As they were sitting down, Lizzie blurted, "Dad and Liv are getting married!" Her hand flew to her mouth and she blushed deeply, "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Oh my God," Maureen shrieked.

"Congratulations," Kathleen smiled at Liv as she grabbed her left hand to look at the ring.

Olivia and Elliot looked at each other and Olivia gave a slight nod. Elliot cleared his throat and then addressed his children, "While our engagement is certainly big news, it's not the only news that Olivia and I have to share with you tonight." He felt Olivia squeeze his hand in encouragement and continued, "Liv told me this morning that she's three months pregnant. You're all going to have a new baby brother or sister."

As he finished, Olivia noticed that none of the kids were saying anything and all five of them wore identical, shocked expressions. She was suddenly doubting herself and wishing she was somewhere else. She just wanted them to be happy, she loved them all and finally had the family she'd always wanted, but she wasn't sure they wanted _her._

Her thoughts were interrupted by Eli, "Are you really gonna have a baby, Olivia?"

She nodded, feeling sick to her stomach, dreading his reaction.

He pumped his fist in the air as he shouted, "YES! I'm finally gonna be a big brother!"

Olivia let out the breath, she hadn't realized she was holding and smiled, while Elliot laughed, and the older children chimed in with their own enthusiastic congratulations.

"Are you guys sure you're okay with this?" Olivia asked looking at the five Stabler kids surrounding her.

Maureen answered as a representative for her siblings, "Of course we're okay with it Liv. We love you and who couldn't use another brother or sister? We were just shocked. I mean, seriously, Dad's been gone for the past three months."

Elliot answered before Olivia could even consider saying something, "Olivia became pregnant the night before I left, so I think it's safe to say that we're all pretty shocked. Happy, but shocked."

The waitress brought their food and the family resumed their small talk. Maureen talked about her training to become a nurse and her boyfriend of the past two months. Elliot said he'd have to come dinner the following Friday and meet the family. Surprisingly Maureen agreed. Kathleen brought him up to date on her senior year of college and her student teaching. She was currently single, but really loved her first graders.

After they finished, the four older children said their good-byes and left.

"So I guess it's just us and Eli tonight?" Elliot asked Olivia.

"It's usually just Eli," Liv explained. "The other kids all have their exciting college lives to attend too. The first few weeks you were gone the twins would spend the weekends I had Eli with us and Maureen and Kathleen would join us on Saturday, but then I told them to get back to their lives. I didn't want to be the reason they weren't having fun."

Elliot just nodded. "So should we stay at your place this weekend since I have clothes in by bag and you don't have anything at my apartment?"

"Works for me. What do you say Eli?"

"Do I have to sleep on the couch?"

"No."

"Then I'm cool with it."

"Alright, let's go." Liv stood and put on her coat, before grabbing her purse. Elliot and Eli also stood and put on their coats.

As they walked to the door, Elliot slipped his arm around his fiancée's waist and pulled her close. He felt Olivia's arm move to encircle his waist and couldn't help, but smile in contentment as he held his fiancée close and watched his son skip ahead of them to the car.


	23. Chapter 23

Elliot and Olivia walked into the squadroom on Monday having spent the weekend relaxing, hanging out with Eli, and _celebrating_ Elliot's homecoming.

Fin, Munch and Cragen immediately noticed the couple as they stepped off the elevator and thanked God that Elliot had finally returned.

"Hey man," Fin greeted as if Elliot hadn't been gone for three months.

"Nice to have you back," Cragen said clapping him on the shoulder.

Munch grinned mischievously, glanced at Olivia, and added mockingly, "Yea, now we won't have to deal with Benson moping around and we might get some actual work done."

"HEY!" Liv protested. "I was not moping!"

"Yea, you were," Fin sided with his partner.

Olivia glared at him, but before she could say anything, Elliot spoke up, "Captain, Liv and I actually need to talk to you in your office for a minute."

"Okay," Cragen sighed, "Let's go."

The group settled in Cragen's office. "Okay, guys, what's up?"

Elliot looked at Olivia, took her hand, and turned back to Cragen, "Liv and I are engaged. We're getting married on Valentine's Day."

Liv didn't hesitate before she added, "And I'm three months pregnant."

Cragen smiled, "Congratulations to both of you on the engagement and the baby. The deal's the same: I won't split you unless I have to. And Liv you're on desk duty until after the baby's born."

"Thanks Captain."

"Yea, thanks."

They walked out of the office and rejoined Munch and Fin who were now talking with Casey, Alex and Melinda.

"So, what happened in there?" Fin questioned.

"We had to tell Cragen that we're engaged and that I'm pregnant," Olivia explained.

The group immediately congratulated their friends with hugs and pats on the back. When everyone had quieted down Liv spoke again, "Unfortunately, I'm on desk duty again," she complained sarcastically.

"It'll be worth it, Honey," Casey said hugging her friend.

"Definitely," Olivia agreed.

The rest of the day passed slowly with everyone pulling desk duty as there were no new cases. While boring, the day of straight paperwork allowed them all to leave at 6:00, a rare occurrence. As they were walking out, Elliot stated, "I talked to Kathy today."

"About what?" Olivia asked curiously, getting into the car.

"Our dinner with Maureen and her boyfriend on Friday. Maureen wants to make it a whole family thing, but it isn't our weekend with Eli, so I called Kathy and we're all going to get together at the house with her and Chris and really scare the shit out of this Jerrad kid."

"Sounds fun. And you're right we will scare him: eight people's he's never met before and he has to sit through dinner with us, making small talk. Maybe we should by name tags," Olivia joked, causing Elliot to laugh.

"Maybe we should," he agreed still chuckling slightly.

"Promise me you'll at least give the boy a chance."

"But that takes all the fun out of being his girlfriend's father."

"I know, but I've talked to Maureen and she really likes him. Don't ruin this for her. Besides he might actually be a nice guy."

"Fine, I'll give him a chance, but if he's a total prick all bets are off."

"Deal."

"So what did Maureen tell you."

"All you need to know is that she really likes the guy and doesn't want you to mess it up."

"In other words: you're not going to tell me."

"Exactly."

"Fine," he huffed.

He reached across to the passenger seat to take hold of Olivia's hand and a contented silence filled the car for the rest of the drive back to Elliot's apartment.


	24. Chapter 24

Friday couldn't come soon enough for any of the Stablers, Olivia, or even Chris. Finally, it was Friday. Elliot and Olivia had already talked to Cragen about getting off at 4:00, so they were at Kathy's by 4:30. Chris and most of the kids were already there. The only one missing was Maureen, who would be arriving with Jerrad at 6:00.

As they walked in the front door, they were immediately greeted with hugs from the kids and hellos from Kathy and Chris.

"I'm so glad you guys are here," Kathy exclaimed. "Olivia could you please help the girls and I in the kitchen?"

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but I can try."

"Thanks. Elliot can you help Chris and the boys clean up the house?"

"Sure, no problem."

Elliot pulled Olivia to him for a quick kiss, before the women headed to the kitchen and the men to clean the house.

Once the women were in the kitchen, Olivia was put to work making the salad, something everyone was sure even _she _could do. Lizzie worked on the garlic bread, Kathy on the spaghetti and meatballs, and Kathleen on the chocolate cake they were serving for dessert.

Kathy didn't look up from what she was doing, "So, Olivia, I hear further congratulations are in order." She looked up, then, to gauge Olivia's reaction.

Olivia froze, the knife she was holding, half-way through the tomato she was slicing. Kathy laughed slightly, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. You know? About the baby, I mean?"

"Yes, I know." Kathy noticed how uncomfortable Olivia looked, "Relax, Olivia, I'm happy for you and Elliot." She saw that Olivia still looked apprehensive, "Really, congratulations. You're going to be a great mom."

Liv relaxed visibly, "Thanks Kathy."

Kathleen and Lizzie had stopped what they were doing to listen to the exchange between their mother and soon-to-be-step-mother and they now exchanged smiles, before everyone returned to their dinner preparations.

Olivia couldn't believe that Kathy was okay with not only the engagement, but the baby too. She was thankful though, it made these family get together's less awkward and was better for the kids all the way around.

Meanwhile, Elliot was having a similar conversation with Chris as they were picking up the living room.

"Congratulations, Elliot."

"What Chris?"

"I said congratulations."

"What for?" Elliot asked feigning ignorance.

Chris looked across the room to meet Elliot's gaze, grinned, and shook his head slightly, "Don't play stupid Elliot, we both know what I'm talking about."

Richard and Eli shared a knowing look and attempted to hide their laughter.

"I'm guessing that someone told you about Liv and I getting engaged and the baby."

"Kathy told me, after all of the kids told her. We're really happy for the two of you."

"Thank-you."

Chris turned his attention to the boys, "Hey, could you guys go clean the bathrooms? I want to talk to your dad alone for a few minutes."

"Sure Chris." Dickie grabbed his younger brother's hand, "Come on, Eli, let's go clean those bathrooms."

"Ewwwwwwwwwwww," Eli crinkled up his nose in disgust, causing the others to laugh.

As soon as the boys were out of the room Elliot turned to Chris, "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Christmas. More specifically, my gift for Kathy. I want to ask her to marry me."

"That's great, but I don't understand why you're telling me."

"I wanted to make sure you were okay with it and ask you if you think the kids will be okay with it."

"Well, I'm fine with it. Kathy's my ex-wife. I'm in love with Liv, always have been. I want Kathy to be happy, but that doesn't include me beyond my involvement with the kids. As for the kids, I'm sure they'll be fine with it, but you'll have to talk to them."

Chris just nodded and the two men went back to picking up the rest of the house.


	25. Chapter 25

Just before 6:00 Maureen and Jerrad arrived. "Everybody this is my boyfriend, Jerrad. Jerrad, this is my mom, Kathy, and her boyfriend, Chris; my dad, Elliot, and his fiancée, Olivia; my sisters, Kathleen and Elizabeth; and my brothers, Richard, he's Lizzie's twin, and Eli," Maureen made the introductions gesturing to each of her family members in turn.

They soon sat down to dinner and an awkward silence. Finally, Olivia broke the silence, "So, Jerrad, Maureen tells me you've already graduated from college, what do you do for a living?"

Jerrad cleared his throat nervously, "I'm a veterinarian." The awkward silence returned and this time it was Jerrad who spoke first, "Maureen says you're a cop, Mr. Stabler. I bet that's interesting."

Elliot looked at Olivia and rolled his eyes before responding, "It is. Liv and I are detectives with Manhattan's Special Victim's Unit. We work as partners."

"You're getting married and you're still allowed to be partners?"

Kathleen laughed, "Special circumstances."

"What my daughter means is that IAB realized they couldn't split up their best team unless they absolutely had to," Kathy explained.

"And we don't intend to give them a reason to," Olivia added.

The rest of the meal was filled with meaningless small talk. After they had finished eating everyone started to clear the table and Elliot pulled Jerrad to the side. Moments later, Chris had grabbed Maureen and Kathleen.

"Where everyone go?" Kathy asked no one in particular.

"Who knows," Dickie answered her.

In the living room, Elliot was working on putting the fear of God in Jerrad. "You're dating my daughter and she seems to really like you. I don't. Understand, it's nothing personal. I don't like any of the guys any of my daughters bring home. You already know I'm a cop, so I'm sure you've managed to figure out that if you hurt her _I. Will. Kill. You. _ Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Jerrad answered quickly, sounding more than a little bit nervous.

"Good. Let's get back to the kitchen."

Chris and the older two Stabler girls were in the entry way. "I wanted to talk to you girls about something that's kind of important."

The sisters looked at each other, both suspecting that they knew what was on his mind. "What's that, Chris?" Maureen asked.

Chris took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I want to ask your mom to marry me. On Christmas."

Kathleen spoke first, "That's great Chris. I'm sure she'll say yes."

"I agree with Kat. Mom loves you, there's no way she'll say no."

"So, you guys are okay with this?"

"Definitely," they answered in unison, before heading back to the kitchen. Chris was close behind them.

They reentered the kitchen at the same time as Elliot and Jerrad. "Where'd you all run off to?" Olivia asked.

"Nowhere," they all said simultaneously.

Olivia looked at Kathy and both women laughed, "You know what, we don't even want to know. You're all probably up to no good," Kathy said through her laughter.


	26. Chapter 26

The group sat around talking, laughing, and getting their butts kicked by Dickie in Wii Sports. Around 10:00 everyone headed out; Maureen, Jerrad, Kathleen, Lizzie, and Dickie all headed back to school and Elliot and Olivia headed back to her place.

After they'd been driving for about five minutes Liv turned to look at El, "What exactly did you threaten to do to Jerrad when the two of you disappeared after dinner?"

"Nothing!" he exclaimed, attempting to sound innocent. "You told me to play nice and I did."

She laughed at him, shaking her head, "I know what I told you, but I also know you, which takes me back to: What did you threaten to do to Jerrad?"

He didn't answer.

"_Elllllliottttt_," she drew his name out, sounding exasperated.

"I was just doing my fatherly duties."

"And tonight they included what exactly?"

"You're not going to give up are you?"

"No. I'm not, so you might as well tell me."

"Fine, you win."

"I always do," she smirked.

He grinned, "I just told him that if hurt my daughter I'd kill him."

"You threatened to kill your daughter's boyfriend? Nice."

"Hey! I didn't threaten him."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"I made a promise, one that you and I both know I won't hesitate to keep."

She laughed, "Whatever you say."

They made it back to her apartment and quickly changed into their pajamas, before deciding to watch a movie.

"What do you want to watch?" Elliot called to Olivia, who was in the kitchen making popcorn.

"Doesn't matter," she called back.

Elliot picked up Liv's copy of _Date Night_ thinking they could both use a laugh. He put in the DVD and settled back on her couch. Moments later Olivia walked in holding a bowl of popcorn. She placed the bowl in his lap as she curled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He let his hand fall down to rest on her hip.

"So, what are we watching?" she asked, angling her head up to look at him.

"_Date Night._"

They settled in to watch the movie and were soon asleep, both the movie and the popcorn forgotten.

Olivia woke up a few hours later to find herself stretched out on top of Elliot and the popcorn dumped on the floor. She quietly disentangled herself from Elliot's arms and picked up the popcorn, taking the bowl to the kitchen when she was finished. When she returned to the living room she put the DVD away and turned off the t.v. Then, she walked back over to the couch and sat on the edge, placing her hand on Elliot's cheek, stroking his face gently, "El, honey."

"What?" he groaned, shifting in his sleep.

"Let's go to bed."

He opened his eyes, "You're waking me up to tell me it's time to go to sleep?"

"No, I'm waking you up to tell you that if you sleep on the couch all night, you'll be sleeping alone and your back is going to kill tomorrow."

"Good enough for me," he said as he stood up and followed her to the bedroom.

She crawled into bed and he climbed in after her, wrapping his arms around her and covering her stomach with his hand, feeling where their child was growing. He smiled and mumbled into her hair, "I love you, Livvie."

"I love you too, El."

They were soon asleep again, safe in each other's arms.


	27. Chapter 27

Soon it was Friday again and Elliot and Olivia were sitting at their desks, finishing up the paperwork for the case they'd officially closed that morning. They were both anxious to get out of the precinct and pick-up Eli. Tonight they were going to decorate Elliot's apartment for Christmas, it was only a week away. Olivia was especially excited because it was her first Christmas with a family, she felt a smile slowly cross her face.

Elliot glanced up at his fiancée and saw that she was smiling to herself, he smiled at her, "What's got you so happy?"

"Christmas."

"You're happy about Christmas? It comes every year and I've never seen you be happy about it before."

"This year I have a family."

"Yea, you do. Are you ready to get out of here?"

She signed the last of her paperwork, "Yes, are you?"

"Yep. I'll go tell Cragen we're leaving."

When he came back from Cragen's office, Olivia had just finished filing their newly completed paperwork. He grabbed her coat and helped her into it, before putting on his own. They walked out to Elliot's car hand in hand. Once in the car, they headed to Kathy's to pick-up Eli.

"So, what's the plan for tonight, Olivia?"

"Well, since we got out early and it's only…," she paused to glance at her watch, "4:30, why don't we get a tree before dinner, then after dinner we can decorated the tree and make cookies."

"Sounds like a plan, what do you want to do for dinner?"

"I don't care."

"Okay, we'll ask Eli and pick something up on the way home."

"Works for me."

They pulled into Kathy's driveway and walked to the front door. They didn't even get a chance to knock, before the door opened and Eli hurled himself into his father's arms. Afterwards, he turned and hugged Olivia, who laughed at his enthusiasm, "You ready to go get a Christmas tree?"

"You bet!"

Kathy appeared, holding Eli's backpack and a shoebox, "Eli has a science project due on Monday. Can one of you help him make a diorama of an ocean ecosystem?"

"Sure Kathy, we'll take care of it," Elliot assured her as he took the backpack and shoebox from her.

"Bye Mom," Eli waved, as he walked toward the car.

"Okay, Buddy, what do you want for dinner?" Elliot asked his son, looking over his shoulder as he backed out of the driveway.

"Hmmm," Eli thought out loud. "How about…tuna casserole?"

"I think we can manage that," Olivia answered.

By 6:30, Eli and Elliot were working on setting up the Christmas tree and draping it with lights. Olivia was in the kitchen making dinner.

An hour later, they had eaten dinner and were happily hanging ornaments on the tree. "Olivia, could you hang this up there?" Eli asked holding an ornament out to Liv and pointing to a spot near the top of the tree.

"Sure Sweetie," she took the ornament and reached up to hang the ornament, finding that she couldn't quite reach the spot that Eli had indicated. Elliot saw her standing on her tip-toes, stretching to reach to top of the tree. He laughed and walked over to help her. He wrapped one arm around her waist to keep her from falling and reached up with his other hand to take the ornament from her and hang it where Eli had wanted. After the ornament was hung, Olivia twisted in Elliot's arms and placed her hands on his chest, quickly kissing his lips, before returning to her task of hanging ornaments.

She didn't notice Elliot leave the room or return holding two small boxes. He placed them on the coffee table with the other ornaments and waited impatiently for her to find them. He and Eli were busy discussing the best place for Eli's Spiderman ornament when they heard Olivia gasp. Elliot turned to look at her. She was facing them, tears in her eyes, one of the boxes he'd brought out in her hands, "Oh, El."

He walked over and took her in his arms, looking to see which ornament she'd opened. It was the glass heart on the red ribbon that had _Our First Christmas _scrawled across it.

"It's beautiful, Elliot," she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. When she pulled away she went to hang the ornament on the tree. She stood there looking at it. Elliot walked up behind her, kissed her neck and handed her the other box.

She opened it and felt new tears form in her eyes when she saw the teddy bear ornament inside. The little bear was wearing a green t-shirt that said _Mommy's First Christmas. _"Elliot, you're gonna make me cry."

He turned her, so that she was looking up at him and dropped his forehead to hers, "Don't." He kissed her gently, before taking the ornament and hanging it next to the one she'd just hung.

"Can we make cookies now?" Eli asked impatiently.

"Yea, Eli. We'll meet you in the kitchen," Elliot told his son.

He kissed Olivia once more and then took her hand as they headed to the kitchen to make cookies with one very impatient third grader.

Two hours and three dozen cookies later, Eli was asleep and Elliot was helping Olivia clean up the kitchen.

"How did we manage to get flour all over the floor?" Liv asked, not really expecting an answer.

Elliot chuckled as he wiped off the counters, "Probably from the flour fight that _somebody_ thought would be a good idea."

"Oh, you mean that _you_ thought would be a good idea?"

"Hey, in my defense, it was fun."

"Yea and it was also a mess." She surveyed the kitchen, "Looks good to me, let's go to bed."

Elliot crossed the room quickly and picked her up causing her to cling to his neck and shriek in surprise. "SHHHHHH!" he scolded, "You're going to wake up Eli."

She giggled as he carried her down the hall to his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.


	28. Chapter 28

Saturday morning they all woke up early. Elliot made pancakes, while Olivia sat at the kitchen table, nursing her a cup of tea, since she could no longer have coffee and Eli lay sprawled across the living room floor watching cartoons.

"Eli, breakfast!" Elliot called into the living room as he set down plates of pancakes in front of Olivia and the chair across from her. He went to get his own breakfast and by the time he sat down next to Liv, Eli had joined them.

"Eli, how about you and I got out and get the things you need for your ocean diorama after breakfast and your Dad and I can help you put it together?"

"Cool!"

"What I'm not invited?" Elliot asked pretending to be greatly offended.

"Of course, you are," Olivia assured him, placing a hand on his forearm.

After breakfast, they all went to get dressed, before meeting by the front door, ready to go out.

Almost two hours later, they'd returned with various shades of blue paint, a small bag of sea shells, assorted plastic sea animals, several sheets of ocean stickers, glitter glue, and numerous other items they thought they'd need.

The trio settled down at the kitchen table and got to work, arguing about where certain animals should be placed and how much glitter glue was _too _much, but laughing as they did. By lunch time they were finished.

"It looks great, Eli."

"Thanks, Livia." He stood up and took the newly completed diorama to his bedroom.

Olivia had just started to clean-up the table when she heard Elliot start to laugh. She turned to face him, "What?" she asked.

In response he simply reached out and swiped his thumb across her cheek. When he pulled his hand away, he showed her what was on his thumb, "You had glitter glue on your face," he told her still laughing.

She laughed with him, "Says the man with the purple fish sticker on his neck," she said through her laughter as she reached to remove the offending sticker.

Elliot caught her hand and pulled her into his lap, removing the sticker himself with his other hand. "Thanks for helping Eli with his science project."

She smiled down at him, "You're welcome, but you don't have to thank me. I was happy to do it."

"Not the point, you didn't _have _to do it."

"I don't _have _to do a lot of things, but I do them anyway."

"I know, it's part of why I love you: you give so much to others. Especially my kids."

"I love your kids."

He moved his hand to the back of her head and pulled her close for a passionate kiss. "You're amazing," he sighed against her mouth.

"I know," she smirked as she stood up and finished cleaning up the mess that Eli's project had left behind.

Elliot just smiled and shook his head, unable to believe how lucky he was: having 5 wonderful children with another on the way and marrying the most beautiful woman in the world.

After lunch, they took Eli to the park, stopping to pick up his friend, Brycen. As Brycen got into the car, Eli made the introductions, "Brycen, this is my dad, Elliot Stabler, and his fiancée, Olivia Benson. They work together as detectives."

"Awesome!"

"It's nice to meet you, Brycen," Olivia said, turning in her seat to face the boys. "Are you in Eli's class at school?"

"No, we only see each other at recess." He went on to explain all the goings on of third grade recess. Olivia smiled at Elliot, only half-listening to the young boys rambling.

After the park, they all went out for ice-cream, before taking Brycen home and heading back to Elliot's apartment to spend a quiet night at home, followed by a quiet Sunday together, before they took Eli home and got ready for another week of work. The last week before Christmas.


	29. Chapter 29

Too many cases and an obnoxiously large amount of paperwork and it was once again Friday, but better than that: it was Christmas Eve. At 4:00 Cragen walked out of his office, "Everyone out!"

The four detectives were all startled out of their paperwork induced trance, "What are you talking about, Cap?" Fin asked. "We all have massive amounts of paperwork to do, thanks to the pervert convention that apparently decided to visit our glorious city this week, and I for one want to get it done before Christmas."

"Paperwork can wait until after the New Year. Now get out of here, go home, change, and be at the Christmas party by 6:00. All of you!"

The detectives all shared a smile and a laugh as they grabbed their coats and walked out together.

Elliot and Olivia had gone back to her apartment to get ready and at 5:30 Elliot was waiting in the living room when he heard Olivia's bedroom door open. He stood and walked to the end of the hallway, watching as Liv stumbled down the hallway in her floor-length, strapless, red dress, trying to put on her heels as her loosely curled hair fell over her face. She tripped and almost fell, but was saved when Elliot caught her by her upper arms. "Thanks," she said, looking up at him and smiling as she finished putting on her shoes. When she was finished she stood up, forcing Elliot to finally let go of her arms.

They stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at each other. Elliot was the one to break the silence, "You look gorgeous, Babe."

Olivia smirked, "Thanks, you don't look half-bad yourself." She kissed him quickly, "We need to get going, we're gonna be late."

She pushed past him, going to grab her coat and for a moment all he could do was stare after her.

They managed to get to the party on time, sitting down at their table with only seconds to spare. "Cutting it a little close aren't you?" Cragen asked.

"We made it here my 6:00," Olivia protested.

"Yea, why was it such a big deal for us all to be here by 6:00 anyway?" Elliot asked.

"I'd like to know that too," Munch chimed in.

"No reason, just wanted to make sure nobody tried to ditch this year," he gave a pointed glance to Olivia.

"Hey! What did I do?"

"You have missed every, single Christmas party for the 11 years. This is the first one in 12 years that you've actually shown up for."

"Not true!"

"You haven't been to one since I joined the squad 10 years ago," Fin commented, taking the Captain's side.

"Don't help Fin," Olivia chastised him. "Why's it matter if I come or not, anyway?"

"Is it so hard to believe that we might just like having you around?" Elliot asked her, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

She didn't know what to say and everyone at the table could tell. Suddenly, all eight of them: Cragen, Fin, Munch, Melinda, Alex, Casey, Elliot, and Olivia, all burst out laughing.

The party passed quickly with Elliot and Olivia spending most of their time on the dance floor. As they headed to the bar to get drinks, non-alcoholic for Liv, Olivia realized that they hadn't been paying any attention to the time, "What time is it, El?"

He glanced at his watch, "A little after 9:00. Why?"

"What time did you tell Kathy we'd pick-up the Eli?"

"Relax. I talked to Maureen earlier today, she was going to pick-up Eli at 6:30 and together they were going to meet the rest of the kids at the apartment by 7:00. I told her that we'd be home around 10:00. We still have a half hour before we need to leave."

"Okay, just checking."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to dancing with my fiancée, before I have to take her home and share her with my kids," he smiled as he wrapped his arm waist and pulled her tightly against him.

She let him lead her back out to the dance floor, but they left promptly at 9:30. "Liv, the kids won't mind if we're a few minutes late."

"Well, I mind. This is my first Christmas with a family and I want to spend as much time as possible with the kids, now, let's go," she sounded just the slightest bit impatient.

He laughed at her eagerness, "Okay, okay, I'm coming."

They walked out of the building a few minutes later and turned to walk down the street to their car. They'd only taken a few steps when they heard a high-pitched scream coming from nearby. Elliot took off running toward the noise, turning down a dark alley to get to the source of the screaming. Olivia did her best to follow him, but it was made difficult by the fact that she was wearing three inch heels. All the same she managed to turn down the alley just seconds after him.


	30. Chapter 30

Olivia gasped at the sight before her. Alex was lying on the ground, struggling to sit up and there was blood running down her face from a cut along her hair line. Elliot was already beating the crap out of some thug in a ski mask. Deciding that Elliot was easily going to subdue the man, Olivia rushed over to kneel next to her friend. She lifted Alex's hair out of the way, so that she could get a closer look at the cut, "Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asked, her voice laced with concern and fear.

"No," Alex moaned.

Olivia withdrew her cell phone from her clutch and quickly called 911, when an operator picked up she quickly told them the situation, "This is Detective Benson, with the Manhattan's Special Victims Unit. I have A.D.A. Alex Cabot with me and she's been attacked. My partner, Detective Stabler, is attempting to subdue her attacker, but we need back-up and paramedics here immediately," she gave their location and listened as they told her help would be there soon before hanging up.

"They'll be here soon, Sweetheart," she assured Alex.

Within minutes they heard sirens as police cars and an ambulance pulled up next to the alley, but by then Alex was unconscious. The would-be rapist was quickly arrested and Alex was taken to the hospital in the ambulance.

Elliot and Olivia hurried to their own car and took off for the hospital themselves. On the way there, Olivia called everyone from work to tell them to meet them at the hospital. Then she called Maureen.

"Hey Liv. Are you and Dad on your way?"

"Honey, we're going to be late. Alex was attacked and we're on our way to the hospital."

"Oh my God! Is she okay?"

"Yes, Maureen, she's going to be fine."

"What happened?"

"Your dad and I were on our way to the car when we heard someone scream, we went to see what was wrong and found Alex. She'd been pulled into an alley and hit in the head. She was on the ground bleeding when we got there. Your dad subdued her attacker, while I checked on her and called for back-up. She was conscious when we got there, but had passed out by the time the paramedics arrived."

"Oh God."

"She'll be okay."

"Keep us posted."

"I'll do that."

Olivia hung up just as Elliot was pulling up to the hospital. They rushed inside and immediately headed for the nurse's station.

"We're here for Alex Cabot. She was just brought in by ambulance," Elliot demanded information from a young nurse.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know anything yet. Someone will be out to talk to you soon. Please, just take a seat."

Elliot glared at her, but, thankfully, did what he was told. Twenty minutes later and they'd been joined by Cragen, Fin, Munch, Casey, and Melinda. Elliot filled them in on what had happened and told them that they were waiting to hear from a doctor.

"This sucks," Fin complained.

"Alex definitely didn't deserve this," Melinda agreed.

"Does anyone?" Casey asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"No, they don't," Olivia answered, pulling her friend into a hug. Casey and Alex were close, they worked together every day and had a friendship much like the one between the members of the Special Victims Unit.


	31. Chapter 31

A doctor walked in then, causing Olivia and Casey to break apart when he said, "Who's here for…" he glanced at the chart in his hand, "Alexandra Cabot."

"We are," the entire group chorused.

He approached them as they formed a tight semi-circle around him, each of them trying to press as close to the front as possible, eager to hear what he had to say. "Ms. Cabot, blacked out due to a minor concussion. She also had bruising on her inner thighs, but it doesn't appear that she was raped."

"When can we see her?" Cragen asked, taking charge.

"Right now. She's conscious and will most likely be perfectly fine, however, I'd like to keep her overnight for observation. When she goes home tomorrow, she's going to need someone to stay with her and look after her, just to make sure she's okay, for a couple of days."

"I can do that," Casey volunteered.

"Good. I'll take you to her room now." The doctor led them down a series of corridors and left them in front of Alex's room. The group took a collective deep breath before entering.

"Hey, you guys," Alex said sounding depressed.

"Hey, Alex."

"How's your head?"

"Hey."

"Hi, girl."

"How are you feeling?"

"Hi."

"Do you need anything?"

All seven friends responded simultaneously.

"My head kills. Other than that I feel fine. The only thing I need is to talk to Elliot and Olivia alone for a few minutes."

"Okay, we'll wait outside," Cragen told her, ushering the others into the hall.

After they were gone, Olivia and Elliot moved to stand next to Alex's bed. "What's up, Alex?" Olivia asked.

"You found me. What happened?"

"I got there first," Elliot spoke up, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I _need _to know."

Elliot cleared his throat and looked at Olivia who nodded. "We heard you scream as we were leaving the party and when I got to the alley…," he trailed off.

"Just tell me, Elliot, I need you to tell me."

"You were on the ground and your head was bleeding." He watched as Alex gingerly touched the bandage covering the cut at her hairline and then continued, "He was trying to force your legs open, but you were fighting him for all you're worth."

Alex nodded.

Olivia picked up where Elliot had left off, "By the time I got there you were trying to sit up and Elliot was beating the living daylights out of the man that had attacked you. I called for help, but by the time the ambulance arrived you had passed out and here we are."

Alex nodded again, "He didn't rape me." She had said it as a statement, but Olivia and Elliot took it as a question.

Olivia grabbed Alex's hand, "No, honey, he didn't."

They stood there in silence for a few moments before Elliot invited the others to rejoin them. They came in and chatted for a little while, but didn't stay long. They all agreed that Alex needed to get her sleep.

"I'll be back to pick you up in the morning," Casey told her.

"Okay."

The rest of the group said their good-byes in unison.

"Bye guys."

Elliot and Olivia dragged themselves into his apartment wanting nothing except sleep only to find Maureen awake on the couch, waiting for them. She pounced on them as soon as they walked in the door, "How's Alex?"

Olivia gave the young woman a hug, "She's fine, Sweetie. Why are you still awake? It's late and Eli is going to have us up early for presents."

"I just wanted to make sure you guys got home okay and that Alex was going to be alright."

"Well, we're here now," Elliot told her, "And Alex is going to be fine, so you can go to bed now."

"Okay. Good night." She hugged them both again and headed to the guest room she was sharing with her sisters.

"Time for us to go to bed too," Elliot stated as he pulled Olivia in to a long overdue hug, finally giving her the comfort she needed. He led her down the hall to the bedroom and they were soon asleep.


	32. Chapter 32

It wasn't quite 6:30 when Eli bounded into his dad and soon-to-be-step-mom's room and started bouncing on the bed, "Get up, get up, get up! It's Christmas! Time for presents!"

Olivia groaned and buried her face in Elliot's chest. Elliot tightened his hold on her waist and moaned, "Eli, living room, now, we'll be out soon."

"Okay," the boy said cheerily.

"I don't wanna get up," Liv complained against his chest.

Elliot started to rub her back, "Come on, it's time for your first official Stabler Family Christmas."

At that Olivia looked up at him, suddenly wide awake, "First family Christmas, period. Let's go."

Elliot laughed at her enthusiasm and pulled her toward him for a kiss, "Let's go."

Within 20 minutes, Elliot and Olivia were curled up on the couch with the children seated around the living room. They took their time opening their presents, oohing and ahing as they went.

Eli got a new football, a Yankees jersey, two video games, a DVD, and clothes from his dad and Liv, the Giants sweatshirt he'd been wanting from Maureen, Harry Potter Clue and the new Loopz game from Kathleen, three DVD's from Lizzie and three video games from Dickie.

Dickie received DVD's and clothes from his dad and Liv, a new watch from Maureen, a new jacket from Kathleen, and a watch from Lizzie and Eli.

Lizzie was happy with her DVD's and clothe from Elliot and Olivia, a purse from Maureen, new shoes from Kathleen, and a bracelet from her brothers.

Kathleen was thrilled with her clothes and purse from El and Liv, the dress Maureen gave her, the earrings from Lizzie, the gift certificate to the mall from Dickie, and nail polish and lip gloss Eli got her.

Maureen got clothes and a purse from her dad and Liv, a necklace from Kathleen, a gift card to a book store from Lizzie, two DVD's from Dickie, and nail polish and lip gloss from Eli.

Elliot couldn't have been happier with his gifts: a watch from Olivia with_ "El~ I'm yours until the end of time ~Liv," _engraved on the back and from his children, a framed picture of all five of them.

Olivia received a heart pendant from Elliot, the stones alternated between their two birth stones and a picture of all seven of them from the kids. The photo had been taken by Cragen at the last precinct family picnic, they were all smiling and happy and it had been placed in a frame that read _"Stabler Family," _across the bottom. She was the last one to open her gifts and almost cried when she looked at the picture. When they saw the tears in her eyes, the Stabler clan immediately moved in to give her a hug. When they all pulled away, Olivia found that Eli had found his way into her lap, he looked up at her and told her, "You're family," now she really did cry.

Meanwhile, across town, Kathy and Chris were officially engaged and making the most of their alone time in celebration.

Elliot, Olivia and the kids played board games and watched movies until it was time for the kids to head to Kathy's to spend Christmas evening with her and Chris.

Around 2:00 Elliot and Olivia finished helping them pack their things into everyone's cars and after several hugs and multiple good-byes the kids were gone, leaving them alone, to make the most of their first Christmas together as a couple.

"Just think, next year, we'll be celebrating Christmas in our own house," Olivia marveled out loud as they walked back up to Elliot's apartment.

"Two weeks," he stated in reply, "We move in in two weeks."


	33. Chapter 33

The week between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve passed slowly for Elliot and Olivia, probably because their week consisted of nothing other than a mountain of paperwork and three open and shut cases. They spent eight hours a day staring at each other across their desks, wishing they could just go home and spend time alone, probably packing, but still together.

Finally, it was New Year's Eve. Kathy had the kids, so El and Liv were going to Casey's with the rest of the gang for her New Year's Eve party. The party didn't officially start until 7:00, but Elliot and Olivia were helping Casey set up, so they arrived shortly after 6:00. Since it wasn't formal they were both just wearing jeans and t-shirts. Olivia's, however, was a little night over her just-barely-noticeable baby bump. Casey ushered them in and put them to work almost immediately. However, a few minutes later, she pulled Liv aside, "I need you to do something for me."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Get Alex down here."

Olivia looked confused.

"She's been up in the guest room for a week, won't come out no matter what I do. I asked her to come down tonight for the party, but she refused. I'm really worried."

"Oh, Casey, I'm sorry. I'll go up and see what I can do."

"Thanks, Olivia." The two women hugged and then Casey went back to helping Elliot get ready for the party, while Olivia headed up stairs to talk to Alex.

Moments later, Olivia was knocking on the door of Casey's guest bedroom. "Go away, Case, I told you I'm not coming down, so just leave me alone," came Alex's muffled response.

"Alex, honey, it's me, Liv. Please let me in." She heard movement on the other side of the door and soon it swung open and she was able to step inside. As soon as she'd opened the door, Alex trudged back to the bed and curled up in a ball facing away from Olivia.

Olivia sat down on the edge of the bed and put her hand on Alex's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, "Come on, talk to me, why won't you come to the party?"

"Because everyone will be there and they all know," the tears were evident in her voice.

"Yea, we all know, but we also all love you and want to spend time with you tonight, ringing in the new year."

Alex rolled on to her back, looking up at Olivia through her tears, "I can't face them."

"Yes, you can. They're your friends, your family. They care about you and would do anything for you."

"But they _know_."

"So, what are you afraid is going to happen?"

"They'll treat me different," Alex sniffled.

"No, they won't, I promise."

"And if they do?"

"I'll kick their asses."

Alex laughed slightly, letting her first smile since the attack grace her lips, "Okay, I'll go, just to see that."

"Good. Now, get up and get ready."

Alex stood and hugged Olivia, whispering, "Thanks, Liv," in her ear.

"Don't mention it. I'll see you downstairs."

She rejoined Elliot in the living room, while Casey was in the kitchen. He looked up when he heard her enter the room, "Hey, Baby, where were you?"

"Talking to Alex. She didn't want to come down tonight because she's afraid everyone will treat her differently. I told her they wouldn't and if they did I'd kick their ass."

"Such a good friend. I'll let everyone know to act normal."

"Good."

She walked to the kitchen as he sent a text to all their friends and waited for their replies.

"Hey, Casey."

Casey turned around, looking anxious, "So, is she coming down?"

"Relax. She'll be down in a little bit."

Casey embraced Olivia tightly, "Oh thank God."

"She's going to be okay."

"I hope so."

Elliot walked in then, "Everyone agreed to treat Alex as if nothing happened."

"What?" Casey asked.

"She didn't want to come because she was afraid people would treat her differently," Olivia explained.

"Oh, well, then, normal it is," Casey agreed and the trio set to work finishing the party preparations.


	34. Chapter 34

Promptly at 7:00, Cragen arrived and within 15 minutes everyone else had gathered in Casey's living room. They all stood around talking about everything and nothing. Suddenly, Elliot nudged Olivia and once he had her attention nodded toward the stairs. She turned to see what had caught his attention, it was Alex. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking nervous. Olivia excused herself from the group and walked over to her friend.

She gave Alex a quick hug, "Come on, let's go say hi."

Alex nodded and followed Olivia back to the group.

As they joined the group, Olivia slipped her arm around Elliot's waist and felt his go around her shoulders as she leaned into him. Their friends continued to listen to Munch's latest crazy conspiracy and when he was finished even Alex laughed.

The evening continued on with everyone telling funny stories from their year. As midnight grew closer it seemed that everything was normal. Alex was laughing and Olivia hadn't had to kill anyone yet for upsetting Alex.

Five minutes until the ball dropped and everyone had their drinks in their hands (non-alcoholic for Liv). The minutes passed and Elliot pulled Olivia into his lap as the countdown started. "10…9…8…7…," everyone chanted, "6…5…4…3…2…1…," Elliot and Olivia kissed passionately as everyone else cheered around them.

They were all tired, so they started heading out as soon as the cheering died down. Soon, Olivia and Elliot were the only two left behind to help Casey and Alex clean-up. Alex managed to find time to pull Olivia aside, "Thank-you, Olivia."

"For what?"

"Getting me to come downstairs, to the party, to see everyone."

"I just wanted you to see that everything was going to be fine, that we all still love you.

"I know, but I never would have faced them tonight had it not been for you. I think I'm going to be okay."

"You are." They hugged and then returned to help Elliot and Casey finish picking up. No sooner had they walked back into the living room than Olivia was pulled out again, this time be Casey.

"Thanks, Liv."

"For what?" Liv asked as a strong sense of déjà vu washed over her.

"For helping Alex."

"She's my friend too."

"I know. Still, I was really worried about her and after tonight she seems almost like her old self."

"She just needs time, Case."

"I know." They hugged and went to finish cleaning-up the living room. When they walked in Elliot looked up and smiled at his fiancée, who smiled in return.

Almost an hour later and they were headed back to Olivia's apartment. About half-way there, Elliot reached across to the passenger seat and took hold of Olivia's hand, "You're amazing."

She looked at him with an unmistakable sparkle in her eye, "Oh and why is that?"

"You were great with Alex tonight. I mean you're always great with the vics, but this time it was your friend and you still handled it better than anyone else could. You're amazing."

She smiled and winked at him, "Oh, you have _noooo _idea."

They were at her apartment by then and made it up the stairs quicker than they ever had before. Once they were inside her apartment they quickly made their way to her bedroom, where they finished ringing in the New Year.


	35. Chapter 35

The next two weeks were filled with new cases, paperwork, Eli's hockey games, a doctor's appointment for Olivia (now four months pregnant), wedding plans, and lots of packing, but soon it was the day before Elliot and Olivia would finally be able to move into their new house.

They had been staying at Elliot's apartment for the past week, since last weekend they had officially finished packing up her apartment and all of her things were in boxes. On Friday night Elliot's kids all joined them to "celebrate" the last night in the apartment and help move things in the morning.

The family sat around the empty living room eating Chinese food because the fridge had officially been emptied out days ago. "Hey, Dad?" Dickie began.

"Yea," Elliot answered as he tried, unsuccessfully, to put food in his mouth.

Dickie chuckled at his dad, "Do we have a plan for tomorrow?"

"Moving," he stated the obvious.

"Well, duh, I meant, like who's doing what."

"Oh, umm, well, I suppose you, Lizzie, and Eli can go help Olivia empty out her apartment, making sure she doesn't lift anything heavy," he said pointedly, causing Liv to roll her eyes at him, "And Maureen and Kathleen can stay here and help me. Later, you can help me with the furniture from both apartments, while everyone else starts unpacking at the house. How's that sound to everyone?"

Liv was the first to speak, "Fine, except for the fact that I don't need a babysitter, let alone _three _of them."

Elliot smirked at her, "I know you and if the kids weren't there you'd try to overdo it. I'm just looking out for the love of my life and our child."

She rolled her eyes again, but couldn't help smiling as she did.

All the kids agreed, smiling at the interaction between their dad and his fiancée.

The next morning everyone was up and ready to go by 7:00, although all the kids were all complaining that "it's just too early to be awake," and "being awake this early should be illegal." All their complaints earned them was coffee, courtesy of Liv.

Soon everyone had set to work, packing the boxes from their assigned apartments into one of the six available cars: Elliot's, Olivia's, Maureen's, Kathleen's, Dickie's, and Lizzie's.

The seven of them managed to move the boxes in relatively few trips, they were done before noon and all met up at the new house. Elliot was the last to arrive and immediately found Olivia in the kitchen making sandwiches for everyone. He walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her expanding middle, letting his hands rest on their unborn child, "We're almost done. After lunch Dickie and I will load the furniture in the truck, unload it here, and then I think we should just call it a day. We can unpack tomorrow."

Olivia leaned back into his embrace, "Sounds good to me, it's a good thing we don't have a lot of stuff. The girls, Eli, and I will start unpacking some of the more essential boxes while you and Dickie are gone."

"Okay, Baby," he murmured against her neck as he kissed her lightly.

Olivia sighed in contentment, feeling his kisses on her neck, a slow smile crossed her face.

"When's lunch?" Eli whined from the doorway.

El and Liv broke apart, "Right now," Liv told Eli, handing him a sandwich.

The rest of the day passed quickly, each piece of furniture was placed haphazardly in the room it belonged in and a surprising number of boxes were unpacked. By 10:00, everyone had passed out on one of the mattresses strewn across the house.


	36. Chapter 36

Sunday morning, everyone, even Eli, slept in, probably due to the sheer exhaustion that had come with moving to apartments into one house in less than one full day. Once they all finally woke up, they ate a leisurely breakfast and then got the day started by arranging the furniture. The house had been painted the week before, so first up was the master bedroom, followed by Eli's room. They had decided to leave the nursery empty until after the wedding, so after they'd finished with the other two upstairs bedroom, they decided to take a break for lunch.

After lunch they quickly set up the two downstairs bedrooms that had been deemed guest rooms, the upstairs living room, and downstairs family room. Finally, Elliot and Dickie flopped on the couch in the living room, "We're done," Elliot moaned.

"Finally," Dickie sighed.

Olivia collapsed on the couch next to Elliot and whined, "I don't want to unpack the boxes today, I'm _tired._"

"How could you _possibly _be tired?" Elliot teased her, "You haven't even done anything yet."

She smacked his arm playfully, "Hey! I've been unpacking the boxes for our bedroom, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. Not to mention the fact that I'm carrying _your_ child."

"I was only teasing," he told her as he pulled her to him and kissed her hair. "Besides, you had five other people helping you unpack."

She smacked him again, smiling and then playfully kissed him.

"Aw, come on guys, really, I'm sitting _right _here."

Elliot and Olivia pulled apart, laughing at Dickie's discomfort. They sat there for a few more minutes, then Elliot summoned the rest of his kids, "Maureen, Kathleen, Lizzie, Eli, come here please."

They filed into the living room and stood facing their father. "What's up, Dad?" Kathleen asked.

"Liv and I are going to go take a nap. Why don't you guys help Eli with his room, while we sleep."

"Cool," Eli cried, pumping his fist in the air. Eli ran down the hall toward his new room with his three sisters chasing him, tickling him whenever they got the chance, their laughter filled the house. Dickie trudged along behind them, still tired from his day moving furniture.

Olivia laughed, "Well, I guess we have a little time."

"That was the point, Livvie, let's go take a nap," he said, standing up and turning to look down at her.

She smiled and let him pull her to her feet. They walked down the hall, their arms around each other, into their bedroom. Elliot closed the door behind them and then pulled Olivia to him for a kiss, uninterrupted this time. "It looks great in here, Baby," he murmured against her lips.

"Thanks, Maureen helped me with the unpacking," she brought their lips back together again.

"Good, I don't want you overworking yourself," he placed his hand on her swelling belly.

"Let's take that nap, now."

With that they curled up into one another on their bed and fell asleep, listening to the kids continued laughter as they helped Eli unpack his belongings.


	37. Chapter 37

Olivia struggled to wake up, blinking away her peaceful dreams. She tried to sit up, knowing that she needed to help the kids finish the unpacking, but Elliot's strong arm kept her firmly in place.

"Where do you think you're going?" he mumbled still half-asleep.

"Well, if you'd let me up, I'm going to go help the kids unpack. It's not fair to make them unpack everything. Besides, it's already…" she trailed of looking at the clock. "Jesus, it's already 5:00! We slept the entire afternoon away!" She struggled once again to sit up, but he didn't release her.

He laughed at her efforts, "Liv, Baby, relax. The kids came in here a while ago and I sent them out to the movies and gave them money for dinner. We have the house to ourselves."

"We still need to finish unpacking. I don't want to be living out of boxes."

"It's done."

"What?"

"You, the girls, and Eli did most of it while Dickie and I moved furniture."

"But, what about the rest? There was still all of Eli's stuff, all the DVD's, and a bunch of other stuff. I just want to finish today, so will you please let me up?"

"No."

"_Ellll,_" she whined. "Come on."

"I told you it's done. The kids finished while we were sleeping."

"All of it?" she sounded doubtful.

"Well, there are five of them," he chortled.

"Seriously, we're officially moved in?"

"Yes, Baby. We're officially moved in."

"Wow," she sighed. "I _finally _have a home," she whispered to herself.

"What was that, Liv? I couldn't quite here you."

She turned in his arms, so that she was looking at him, "I said that I finally have a home."

"What do you mean?" he looked incredibly confused. "You had your apartment."

She shook her head, "That was just a place to live. This is the first time I've had a home."

"I still don't get it."

She sighed, "I've always had a place to live, but I always just existed. I avoided going to my apartment at all costs. Basically, I went there when I needed to sleep and I could do that in the cribs, so really my apartment was just a mailing address. Now, I have a home, a place I want to come back to, with a man I love more than I ever thought possible, his five amazing kids, and a baby on the way. I never thought I'd be this lucky."

He looked at her and wiped away the stray tear that was trailing down her face. "You're wrong," he stated simply.

She looked at him, completely shocked, "What?"

"You're wrong," he stated again, but this time he offered an explanation as well, "_I'm _the lucky one. I'm engaged to the most amazing woman in the world. She's smart, gorgeous, unbelievably compassionate, and to top it all off, she's marrying _me,_" he said in disbelief. "We have five wonderful kids and another due in June, so _I'm _the lucky one because she hasn't realized that she deserves some one much better than me."

Her hands moved up to cup his face and tears flowed freely down hers, she brought his lips down to hers and kissed him deeply. Finally, she pulled away, "There isn't any one better out there, El, I love you."

He ran his hand through her hair, "I love you too, Liv, so much." They kissed again, this kiss carrying more meaning than even their first one had. This kiss proved that they were inseparable, destined to be together always, each other's one true love.


	38. Chapter 38

They eventually emerged from their bedroom having come to terms with their need for food and the fact that they actually couldn't just survive on love.

Elliot was busy making grilled cheese for dinner and thinking to himself, _"I can't believe that this is finally happening. The woman I love, loves me back. All those who said she was unlovable and broke her heart, from her mother to her ex-boyfriends, are stupid and need to have their asses kicked. She deserved better than that. Although, am I really any better? It took me over a decade to tell her how I felt, well, at least I did in the end, so I must be better, right?"_

Across the room, Olivia sat at the kitchen table, fully absorbed in her own thoughts, _"I can't believe that this is finally happening. The man I love, loves me back. He's insane to think that I could do better than him. I've dated and I know that a) there's no one better out there and b) no one else has ever loved me. My own mother couldn't even look at me. I'm the lucky one, he's the one who's settling. I just hope he never realizes it."_

Just then Elliot set a plate down in front of her, startling her from her thoughts. "Thanks," she said, watching him as he sat down next to her. They ate their dinner in complete silence, a first for them. They were both lost in their own thoughts and unwilling to share them with their partner, best friend, and fiancé, they had decided to suffer through their worries in silence.

After dinner, they put their dishes in the sink and curled up on the couch to watch t.v. Neither of them was able to pay attention to the made-for-t.v. movie they were watching and after a while Elliot just turned it off. Olivia looked up at him, a question in her eyes. Elliot knew exactly what she was asking him, "You're being really quiet, what's wrong?" he said in answer to her silent question.

"Nothing. Besides, I'm not the only one being unusually quiet, so what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

They just sat there, Elliot's arm wrapped tightly around Olivia's shoulders, and her hand and head resting on his chest. A pregnant silence filled the room, neither of them wanted to be the first to voice their fears-that would make their uncertainty all too real.

Finally, Elliot broke the silence, "Liv…I've been quiet because I was thinking."

"About?" she prompted, shifting to look at him.

"That I don't deserve you."

"Oh, El, don't say that."

"Why not? I'm not any better than any of those other creeps you dated."

"Don't say that. You are better than them. You love me, not one of them ever did. No one ever has before."

"I do love you, Liv, more than anything in the world, but it took me 12 years to admit it. How can I be any better than them, if I wasn't willing to admit that I loved you?"

"Because you stuck around until you were, before that and it wouldn't have been right. It worked out, El, we're together now and that's all that matters."

He kissed her tenderly, "Yes, it is."

"You know, I was thinking too. About how I hope you never realize how much better than me you could do."

"Not gonna happen because I could never do better than you."

"I'm damaged goods, El, my own mother hated me," there were tears in her eyes.

"You're not damaged goods, they're just to blind and stupid to see the amazingly wonderful woman right in front of them," he kissed her sweetly, emphasizing his point.

"I love you, El."

"I love you, Liv."


	39. Chapter 39

Olivia smiled contentedly and curled back into Elliot's side, his arm still looped around her tightly. Elliot sighed, happier than he'd ever been. He turned the t.v. back on and they caught the tail end of the movie they started earlier.

When it did finish, they decided to stick in a DVD. Elliot got up and selected _Killers _with Katherine Heigel. After he'd set up the DVD he stretched out on the couch and pulled Olivia down on top of him, securing her to him by wrapping his arms around her waist.

They watched peacefully, but after a while Elliot noticed that Olivia was shivering slightly, so he pulled the blanket from the back of the couch down on top of them. Within minutes they were sleeping serenely. They were still asleep on the couch a couple hours later when Lizzie dropped Eli off.

Lizzie put Eli to bed and then approached her father and Olivia. She touched Elliot's shoulder lightly, "Dad," she whispered.

He blinked the sleep out of his eyes, "What?" he grumbled, unhappy about being woken up.

"I just put Eli to bed and everybody else went back to school after the movie, which is where I'm headed now. I just wanted to say good-bye. Oh, and you might want to get up off the couch and actually go to bed, unless you want to be incredibly sore tomorrow."

"Gee, Sweetheart, thanks for the tip. Good-bye, I love you."

"Love you too, Dad. See you later."

Elliot watched his youngest daughter walk out the door on her way back to school, before gently rolling Olivia off of him, so that he could stand up. He stretched, working the kinks out of his back and neck. Once he felt someone human again, he looked down at his sleeping fiancée, marveling at how beautiful and content she looked when she was sleeping.

Elliot bent down and scooped Olivia into his arms. As he stood up with her cradled in his arms, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, sighing happily in her sleep. Elliot kissed her temple gently and carried her down the hall to their bedroom.

He quickly crossed the room and laid her down on the bed, disentangling himself from her arms. He stood up again.

Olivia moaned in her sleep, "Ellll…."

"Shhh, Baby," he smoothed her hair back. "I'm right here."

"Mkay," she murmured and fell back into her deep slumber.

Elliot smiled to himself, circled to the other side of the bed. He climbed in and curled up behind Olivia, pulling her tightly back against his chest. His hand rested tenderly on her expanding stomach, caressing their unborn child. Olivia smiled in her sleep and moved her arm, so that her hand was covering his and let their fingers intertwine. Elliot smiled, murmured, "I love you," into Olivia's hair and fell asleep.


	40. Chapter 40

"Daddy! _Dadddddddddddddy_!" Eli was screaming.

Elliot and Olivia both sat up in bed, immediately panicking. One look at the clock told them it was barey 3:00 in the morning, so the screaming couldn't just be Eli wanting them to get out of bed. They glanced at each other quickly, before bolting out of bed and racing across the hall to Eli's room.

They burst through the door and stopped short. The little boy sitting on the bed before them was hunched over in pain, he was holding his stomach and his face was red. Eli was crying and screaming for Elliot, who quickly went to him. Elliot sat down on the bed and pulled his son into his lap, rubbing soothing circles on Eli's back. Olivia sat down next to Elliot, stroking the child's arm, "What hurts Eli?"

"My tummy hurts," he moaned painfully.

"Hurts where?" Olivia asked gently.

"Everywhere," he cried.

"What did you eat for dinner?"

"Nothing, I wasn't hungry. 'Livia, make it stop," he pleaded.

"Do you think we need to take him to the doctor?" Elliot asked.

"I…," she began.

"I'm going to throw-up," Eli interrupted.

Olivia barely had time to grab the garbage can from beside the bed, before Eli emptied his stomach into it.

"Yes," she answered Elliot simply.

Olivia and Elliot quickly changed into sweats and got themselves and Eli into shoes, coats, hats, gloves, the works. They hastily made their way to Elliot's car and got in. Elliot drove them to the hospital, while Olivia sat in the backseat with Eli desperately trying to comfort him.

When they pulled up to the hospital, Olivia lifted Eli into her arms and the three of them rushed into the hospital. Elliot spent 20 minutes filling out completely pointless forms, while Olivia sat next to him with Eli huddled on her lap. She was doing her best to calm him down, but his crying still filled the waiting room.

Finally, they were able to see a doctor. When she pressed lightly on Eli's stomach, he shrieked and tried to curl into himself. Elliot had to restrain him at his shoulders, while a nurse pinned down his legs and Olivia held his hand, stroking his hair at the same time.

Eventually, the doctor finished her examination and asked the nurse to draw blood and listed a bunch of tests that needed to be run, none of which either Elliot or Olivia understood.

Eli wasn't phased by the blood draw. He was still in pain and crying, but was completely willing to let the nurse take the blood. After the blood draw, the nurse excused herself to take the blood to the lab. As soon as they were alone, Elliot pulled out his cell phone, "I'm going to call Kathy."

"Good idea," Olivia agreed.

Elliot dialed his phone and waited impatiently for his ex-wife to pick-up.

"Jesus, Elliot. It's 4:30 in the morning. This better be important," Kathy grumbled into the phone, clearly not liking being woken up at such an ungodly hour.

"It is, Olivia and I are in the emergency room with Eli."

"Oh my God!" she suddenly sounded fully alert. "What happened?"

"He woke up with a severe stomachache and threw up, so we brought him in. They took some blood and are running tests now."

"Okay, Chris and I are on our way. Did you call the older kids?"

"Didn't see any reason to. Not unless they come back and tell us it's something serious."

"Okay, we'll see you soon."

"Alright."


	41. Chapter 41

Elliot and Olivia sat in the hospital's exam room with a miserable Eli waiting for Kathy and Chris. Roughly a half hour later, Elliot's phone went off. It was a text message from Kathy, _"We're here. Where are you guys?"_

Elliot quickly texted her back, _"I'll meet you in the lobby." _After he'd sent the message, he turned to Olivia, "Kathy and Chris are here. I'm going to go meet them in the lobby and bring them back here. You don't mind waiting with Eli, do you?" he asked her as he gestured to the child who was huddled in her lap, grasping his stomach and crying miserably.

"Of course not."

Then Elliot addressed Eli, "You don't mind waiting with Olivia while I go get Mommy and Chris from the lobby ,do you Buddy?"

Eli shook his head through his tears.

"Okay, I'll be right back," Elliot told them as he left the room.

Moments later he entered the lobby, "Kathy, Chris."

They were by his side almost instantaneously, "What's happening?" an anxious Kathy asked him.

Elliot turned to walk back to the room and waited until they fell in alongside him, before explaining, "He screamed when they touched his stomach and we're still waiting for the results of the blood work."

"Sounds like appendicitis," Kathy stated as they reached the door of the exam room.

The three of them entered together, to find the doctor now waiting with Olivia and Eli.

Upon seeing them enter the room the doctor introduced herself, "Hello, I'm Dr. Holzwarth."

Kathy just nodded and the new arrivals crowded around Liv and Eli, waiting to hear what the doctor had to say.

"We got Eli's test results back and it looks like he has appendicitis."

Elliot felt sick, he hated seeing his son in so much pain, "So, what, surgery, right?"

"That's correct. If you're willing I'd like to schedule him for surgery at 6:00 this morning. That's in about an hour. After the surgery, barring any complications, will keep him two days for observation and then send him home. Once he's released, he'll still need to stay home from school for at least a week. So, should I schedule him for the surgery?"

The four adults all looked at each other and nodded simultaneously. Elliot spoke for all of them, "This morning is fine."

"Okay, I'll send a nurse in with the necessary forms and then he'll be taken into prep. The surgery won't take long and you can all wait in the waiting room."

"Okay," Kathy agreed.

By 6:15, the paperwork had been filled out and signed, the four older children had been notified, and all eight of them sat in the waiting room together.

Lizzie was asleep on Dickie's shoulder and he was doing his best not to look uncomfortable. He wasn't succeeding.

Kathleen and Maureen were huddled together, talking quietly.

Kathy was sitting next to Chris, gripping his hand tightly. She knew this was a routine procedure, but it was being performed on her youngest son and so she was nervous, regardless of how routine it was.

Elliot and Olivia had taken up residence on the sole couch in the room. She was curled up against him with her knees tucked closely to her chest and Elliot's arm draped over her shoulders. Olivia absentmindedly rubbed her hand in slow circles over her baby, hoping the little boy she thought of as her own would be okay.

There they sat, together, a family. They may have taken the long road to get there, but there they were, nonetheless, a family, waiting to hear if their youngest member would be okay.


	42. Chapter 42

Soon Jerrad arrived and Maureen jumped up to hug him. He took her seat and pulled her into his lap and the conversation Maureen had been having with Kathleen resumed.

It was two hours later when Dr. Holzwarth finally entered the waiting room. All of them were on their feet and crowded around her immediately.

They bombarded her with questions:

"How did it go?"

"How is he?"

"Is he okay?"

"Nothing went wrong, did it?"

"Is he awake?"

"Can we see him?"

"How was the surgery?"

The doctor blinked rapidly, "Whoa, calm down. He's fine. Everything went just as expected. He's not awake yet and we're moving him to his room. After he's settled I'll send a nurse out to take you to see him. Try not to excite him though."

"Okay," they chorused in near perfect unison.

They all sat back down, but this time they didn't even attempt to settle down and get comfortable. The three couples all had their hands clasped tightly together. Everyone was on edge, anxious to see for themselves that Eli was okay.

To them it takes forever, but in reality it was less than 20 minutes before a nurse came to take them to Eli's hospital room.

Eli was still asleep when is family entered his room. Kathy sat down on one side of the bed, Elliot on the other, each of them holding one of their son's hands. Olivia pulled up a chair next to Elliot and placed one hand on Eli's leg. She placed her other hand on top of Elliot's and Eli's joined hands.

Chris followed Olivia's example and sat down next to Kathy, placing one hand on her knee. He made no move to touch Eli, however, and Olivia decided it must be because he was unsure of his place in the family. She'd know the kids for most of their lives, hell, she'd been there when Eli was born. He, on the other hand, had only been around for a little over a year.

Maureen and Jerrad had claimed the only other chair in the room, so the other three children stood around, leaning against walls. Eventually, Kathleen and Lizzie ended up perched on the windowsill and Dickie slid down the wall he'd been leaning against to sit on the floor.


	43. Chapter 43

Eventually, Eli's eyes fluttered open and his family breathed a collective sigh of relief. His brother, sisters and Jerrad stood up from where they'd been seated around the room and gathered at the foot of his bed.

"Mommy, Daddy," the small boy's voice was barely a whisper and he sounded terrified, "Livvie."

"We're all here," Olivia assured him.

"How are you feeling, Buddy?" Elliot asked him.

"My tummy still hurts, but it's not as bad."

"That's good, Baby. The doctor took your appendix out, so it won't hurt you anymore," Kathy explained calmly.

"Mommy, what's an appendice?" he struggled through the new word.

"Your appendix is a part of your body that's on the inside," Elliot told him gently.

"Do I need it?" Eli asked, starting to panic.

"No, not at all," Olivia assured him.

"Do you have one, Liv?"

"Nope. I had mine removed when I was 10."

"Cool," he looked relieved to find out that he wasn't the only one without an appendix.

Eli was recovering well and was sent home two days later. Of course, this meant he went home with Kathy and Chris, but Elliot and Olivia visited him every day after work. After their daily visits, Olivia spent the rest of the time fretting about whether or not he was okay. She couldn't stand being away from him while he was sick, especially since this was her first time dealing with a sick child. Elliot did everything he could to reassure her, often to no avail.

Eli stayed out of school for the rest of the week like Dr. Holzwarth had told him to and returned to school the following Monday. His return allowed Olivia to finally relax and stop worrying so much. Eli was thrilled to go back to school because he hated being cooped up in the house. He was the star of his class: the girls all doted on him, thinking he was a hero for having had surgery and the boys all wanted to be him, envying his stitches and the scar they were sure to leave.

His stitches were removed the Wednesday after he returned to school and everyone finally returned to their normal everyday lives. For everyone that meant settling back into the routine of work and school, but for Elliot and Olivia it included a doctor's appointment for the baby and finishing up the plans for the wedding, which was at this point was less than three weeks away.


	44. Chapter 44

**A/N: Sorry for this being so late, but the electric plant caught on fire, so I was without power all day. It's still out, but I'm staying at a hotel with an emergency generator now.**

Olivia was in a fitting room attempting to zip up the dress she was trying on. Finally, she gave up, "Casey, Alex, would one of you come help me?"

"Sure," Alex called. She walked into the fitting room wearing a diamond studded tiara, "Oh, Liv, you look beautiful," she gasped.

"Thanks, but I'll be more likely to believe that it I'm actually _wearing_ the dress when you say that," she laughed.

Alex stood behind Olivia and pulled the zipper up, looking over Olivia's shoulder, taking in the sight of her friend in the mirror they were standing in front of. She couldn't believe how beautiful Olivia looked in her wedding dress. The dress was simple, white and strapless with a beaded bodice and a loose fitting skirt that did a fairly good job of hiding her growing baby bump.

"Casey, come here," Alex called.

Casey walked in, playing with a veil. She stopped short when she saw Olivia, "Oh my God, Liv, you look amazing."

Olivia turned around, smoothing the dress over her stomach, "You really think so?" she asked her friends nervously.

"Yes, of course," Casey assured her.

"Elliot's going to flip!" Alex exclaimed.

"Okay," she didn't sound convinced. "I guess we should go show everyone else."

"Yes, but first…," Casey took the veil she'd been wearing off and placing it on Olivia's head, then she turned to Alex, "C'mon Alex, give it up."

"Fine," Alex groaned, but combed the tiara back into Olivia's hair. "There, now the look's complete and you look drop dead gorgeous."

"I'm sure," Liv agreed, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You do," Casey tried again."

"Whatever," Liv shrugged and walked out of the room to show her dress to Melinda, Kathy, Maureen, Kathleen, and Lizzie.

When she entered the main store, the other women stopped flipping through the bridal magazines they'd been looking at and let their jaws drop as they stared at live.

Olivia took in their shocked faces and sighed in despair, "I know, I look awful. I shouldn't be pregnant and getting married."

"No, Olivia," Maureen jumped up, hugging her, "You look absolutely stunning."

"Yea, Dad's gonna freak," Kathleen joined the hug.

"Like, majorly," Lizzie added, joining her sisters.

"Elliot's going to love it," Kathy attempted to reassure her ex-husband's fiancée.

Melinda was unable to say anything.

"Thanks," Olivia seemed slightly less unsure of herself than she had earlier. "I'm going to change, then we can go to lunch," she told them as she headed back to the fitting room.

"God, she depresses me," Alex complained.

"What are you talking about?" Lizzie looked confused.

"She thinks that just because she's pregnant, she looks awful in _everything_ and shouldn't be allowed to get married."

"She just needs convincing," Kathy explained, "From what I understand she wasn't shown a lot of affection growing up, so she's just a little uncertain about everything that's happening in her life right now."

"Well," Kathleen thought out loud, "I guess we'll just have to convince her that we all love her, Daddy's not going anywhere, and she's going to be a great mom."

"We better hurry then," Maureen said, "Because the wedding's only a week away."


	45. Chapter 45

**A/N: Sorry, everyone, this was supposed to be up yesterday, but the wi-fi was down all day for the entire city. First the power outage, then the wi-fi, this is getting really annoying. BTW, the power was out for over 18 hours! My house was seriously cold when we got back (we have all electric heat). I have another chapter that'll be up later (if I still have wi-fi-it's being really touchy). It's the wedding, how appropriate for Valentine's Day.**

It was officially the night before the wedding and Elliot had gone to do who knows what with his kids. Olivia didn't begrudge him that, but now she was home alone, bored and not all that excited about the sandwich she was currently fixing herself for dinner.

Elliot was actually on his way home from what had been a very interesting evening with his kids. They'd all wanted to wish him luck and celebrate one last time, but his daughters had apparently had another mission as well. Elliot thought about everything that had happened that evening as he drove.

_After dinner, Dickie had driven Eli back to Kathy's and then gone back to his dorm, leaving his three sisters to talk to Elliot alone._

_Once she was sure Dickie and Eli were gone, Maureen turned to face her father, "You have a problem," she stated._

"_A huge one," Lizzie clarified._

"_What are you talking about?" Elliot asked, not sure whether or not he should panic._

"_You have to promise to fix it without telling Liv we told you," Kathleen warned._

_He was apprehensive, but he agreed, "Okay, girls, whatever you say, but please tell me what's going on. Is Liv okay?"_

"_No," Maureen answered simply._

_Elliot was officially panicking, "What's wrong? And how do you know about it before I do?"_

"_Relax Dad," Lizzie cut his tirade off, "Physically she's fine. Emotionally, well, that's a different story…," she trailed off, hoping one of her sisters would actually tell him._

_Kathleen saved her, "Liv's freaking out about everything. When we went to pick up her dress last week, she was really depressed. Apparently, she thinks that because she's pregnant she looks awful in everything and shouldn't be allowed to get married."_

_Maureen picked up where Kathleen had left off, finishing their story, "Mom said that her uncertainty is probably just caused by the lack of affection in her life," she noticed the pained expression on her father's face, "until recently, of course. We've tried all week to convince her that she looks great and that there's no reason for her not to marry you, and that the baby's a blessing, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere. Now you need to fix it, without making it obvious."_

_There were a few moments of silence before Elliot finally spoke up, "Thank-you girls, I'll see what I can do."_

_They'd all said their good-byes and gone their separate ways._

He was just pulling into the driveway when his memories came to an end. He had no idea what he was going to say to convince his fiancée that pregnant or not she was beautiful, pregnant or not he loved her, and pregnant or not he wanted to marry her…tomorrow.

Olivia was just finishing pouring herself a glass of milk to go with her sandwich when she heard the front door open and shut. "Hey, Liv, Baby, where are you?" Elliot called out.

"In the kitchen," she called back as she sat down to eat her dinner.

He walked into the kitchen and came to stand behind her. He leaned down to kiss her neck, "Hey there Beautiful."

She scoffed at him, "Beautiful? Yea, right."

"What?" he asked, pretending to be confused.

"I'm five months pregnant, fat, and far from beautiful." She stood to face him, "I don't need you offering up false compliments." She placed her dishes in the sink and walked out of the kitchen, leaving him there to stare after her, dumbfounded. This was worse than he thought.

He found her in the living room, curled up under a blanket on the couch, reading. Elliot sat down on the coffee table in front of Olivia and pulled the book from her hands, setting it down next to him. "First off, yes, you're five months pregnant, but I fail to see that as a problem. Second, you are definitely not fat. Third, you _are_ beautiful and for the life of me, I can't figure out why you'd think otherwise."

She stood up in front of him, "Look at me, Elliot."

"I am. I'm looking at the most beautiful woman it the world."

"You're just saying that because you have to," she sighed as she tried to walk away.

"Why do I have to?"

"Because you're my fiancé and after tomorrow my husband."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap, "So, that doesn't make what I'm saying any less true. I love you, Liv, and I would never lie to you. Not even to make you feel better."

"Gee, thanks."

"I mean it, Liv. When I say you're beautiful, I only say it because it's true."

She looked at him skeptically.

"I'm serious, Liv, you're beautiful." With that he scooped her up and headed down the hallway.

"What are you doing, Elliot?"

"I'm going to prove to you that you are beautiful, once and for all, Olivia."


	46. Chapter 46

It was the day she'd been waiting for her entire life, or at the very least the past 12 years and it was finally hear. In less than twenty minutes she would walk down the aisle, to officially become Mrs. Olivia Stabler and she couldn't wait.

She stood in the hotel room where she and the Stabler girls were getting ready, gazing into the full-length mirror. She twisted and turned, looking at herself from different angles. She was lost in her thoughts, _"I guess I don't look _too _bad. I love this baby," _she ran her hand over her stomach, _"but the timing's off. I love Elliot and I know he loves me. I definitely want to marry him and I want this baby more than anything, so why do I feel so… horrible. It must be the hormones. This should be the happiest day of my life: I'm marrying the man I love, so I guess I'll just believe that Elliot's telling me the truth when he says I look beautiful. He wouldn't lie to me and I guess neither would anyone else. It must just be me." _She smiled absentmindedly at her reflection, so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Lizzie appear in the mirror behind her.

"What are you smiling about?" Lizzie asked with a smirk on her face, startling Olivia.

Olivia turned around, facing Lizzie, "Nothing, you look amazing," Olivia gasped, taking in the sight of her soon-to-be-step-daughter in her strapless, red, knee-length dress.

Lizzie giggled, "No, I look _good. _You look amazing."

Olivia turned back around to look at her reflection again, catching Lizzie's gaze in the mirror, "You think so?"

"Definitely."

"Okay, well, let's go."

Kathleen and Maureen walked in and Kathleen went to fix Olivia's veil, "There, now, Daddy's waiting."

"Yes, he is," Olivia sighed.

"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" Maureen asked concerned.

Olivia pulled her into a hug, "Of course not Honey, I just can't believe how lucky I am."

"Trust me, he's the lucky one," Kathleen joked.

All four of the women laughed and a knock sounded at the door, "Are you guys ready? It's time," Dickie called from the other side of the door.

Olivia opened the door and all four of the women joined Dickie and Eli in the hall, "Let's go."

Dickie went to join Elliot at the front of the hotel's banquet hall, while Olivia, Eli, and the girls lined up outside the closed doors. The music began to play and Eli headed to join his father and brother, followed by Lizzie, Kathleen, and Maureen. Finally, Olivia made her appearance and everyone stood. Elliot felt his heart stop, he couldn't believe how lucky he was.

When she finally reached him, he took her hands and leaned in to kiss her cheek, "You look absolutely beautiful."

They said their vows and were announced as husband and wife. Neither of them could stop smiling. It was obvious to everyone in attendance that they were truly in love and quite possibly the happiest people alive.

Later, at the reception, they danced the night away, loving the feeling of being in each other's arms and being able to stay there forever.

"I love you, Mr. Stabler."

"I love you, Mrs. Stabler."


	47. Chapter 47

Their happiness did not end with their reception. They were so deliriously happy in their personal lives that even the drama of their professional lives couldn't ruin it.

It had been less than a week since Elliot and Olivia's wedding and the Special Victims Unit couldn't have been busier. The team had spent the last three days trying to find the man responsible for traumatizing an unknown number of little girls, between the ages of six and nine.

It had all started with one seven-year-old girl, who had broken down and been brought in by her mother. Since, it she had been kidnapped and abused by a stranger, Captain Cragen had decided to hold a press conference to release the general details while holding back the specifics. The result had been a slew of mostly useless information and 22 new victims all linked by DNA evidence.

It was killing Elliot and Olivia to look into the faces of those little girls every day and every night they turned to each other for support, needing to know everything was going to be okay. They'd always slept wrapped in each other's arms, but for the past couple of nights it had been different, they practically clung to each other, needing to hold onto the physical representation of their own personal reality.

On the fourth morning they woke up and after realizing what they had look forward to at work, groaned in unison at the thought of getting out of bed and dealing with more victims and most likely more dead ends. Olivia rolled on to her back and looked up at Elliot who was propped up on his elbow, looking down at her.

"I don't want to go to work today, El. It's depressing to think that someone could actually do all those things to little girls," her hand roamed over her stomach absently.

"I don't know, Liv, I really don't," he covered her hand with his, protecting their unborn child. "We have to go to work though, to get justice for those girls."

"I know, but I keep thinking about how awful it would be to be their parents, watching your child suffer like that and not being able to do anything about it has to suck like we can't even imagine."

"You're right, we can't imagine and I promise you we'll never have." He leaned down, so that his lips just barely hovered over hers, "I will _never _let anything happen to you or our baby, okay?"

"Okay," she placed her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him into a kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too, Baby."

They got up, showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to work. Finally, three days later, six days since they'd first been handed the case, they made their arrest and officially handed the case and all the victims, now numbering 38, to Casey and Alex at the D.A.'s office.

By St. Patrick's Day the case was over. Jeffrey Daniels was sentenced to life in prison and life around the Stabler household began to return to normal. Elliot and Olivia felt as if a weight had been lifted of their shoulders and they went back to separating their personal lives from their professional lives as best as they could.

They continued to plan for the baby and began to set up the nursery, while narrowing down their list of names.


	48. Chapter 48

Olivia had loved setting up the nursery. For her it had made the fact that she was going to finally be a mother real. Not that it hadn't been before, but this was…different.

She sat in the rocking chair in the far corner of the nursery, admiring her and Elliot's creation as she waited for him to get back from picking up Eli and their pizza. They'd chosen not to know the sex of their baby, so the nursery had been painted a paled shade of green and the furniture was all beach wood. Basically, everything was completely, 100%, without-a-doubt neutral. Even the clothes hanging in the closet were of neutral clothes, although Olivia knew that would change once the baby was born and everyone could buy them gender-oriented clothes. She rubbed her hand in slow circles over her nearly seven month pregnant belly, smiling to herself, knowing that her baby was going to be well loved.

Olivia glanced at the clock and knew that Elliot and Eli would be back soon. She stood up, intending to get their movie set up before the guys, but getting distracted by the wall of family photos hanging above the changing table, directly across from the crib. She smiled as she took in the memories.

In the middle was the recent Stabler family picture, with Elliot and Olivia in the center. His arms were wrapped protectively around her, his hands resting with hers over their growing baby. Maureen, Kathleen, Dickie, Lizzie, and Eli were all surrounding the happy couple. Everyone was smiling, obviously happy.

There were other pictures too. Several from Elliot and Olivia's wedding. One was of the twins on the day of their high school graduation and one was of Maureen and Kathleen from the previous summer, squirting each other with water guns and laughing their heads off. A few were even of her and Elliot with their friends from work. One of her favorites was of her and Eli. They'd been trying to bake cookies, but had ended up having a flour war and covered in the white powder. They were laughing so hard they were almost crying. It was one of the first times she'd truly felt like part of the Stabler family and it was definitely a treasured memory.

She was standing there, gazing at the wall when she heard the front door slam and Eli's racing footsteps in the hall.

", where are you?" came his sing-song voice.

She walked out of the nursery and laughed as he hurled himself into her arms, "Hey, Eli! You ready for pizza? We're going to watch watching _G-Force._"

"Of course, I'm ready! Let's go!" he practically dragged her down the hallway and into the kitchen.

When they entered the kitchen, Elliot couldn't help but laugh at Eli's enthusiasm. He quickly hand the boy a plate of pizza, "Go put the movie in, we'll be out in a minute."

"Okay," he agreed and left the room to do as he'd been told.

"C'mon, Liv, let's go watch _G-Force_," he said sarcastically.

"Try not to sound too excited, El."

"What's to be excited about?"

"Let's see," she started to list things, counting them off on her fingers as she went, "Talking guinea pigs, an evil mole, appliances that could come to life at any moment and kill you, espionage in rodent form, dogs that want t…"

He cut her off, "Okay, I get it," he laughed, "You like this movie. Let's go." He kissed her and took her hand as they went to meet Eli in the living room.


	49. Chapter 49

The weeks passed filled with cases for Elliot and paperwork for Olivia. There were several movie nights with the kids, doctor's appointments, interrogations from friends about the sex of the baby and possible names, but mostly it was just them being them.

Elliot spent his days trying to make sure Olivia didn't get too pissed off about being stuck behind a desk and his evenings watching t.v. or movies with his wife and however many of his children had stopped by to visit. The nights were his favorite time though; he spent those curled up with Olivia, sleeping peacefully with her in his arms, knowing that for at least those few hours nothing could hurt them. This routine was only interrupted when Olivia sent him out to get whatever food she was craving at the moment.

Olivia was tired all the time and definitely ready to meet her baby. She spent her days acting as if she was pissed about being on desk duty just so that Elliot could feel like he was doing something to help her by "calming" her down, when really she was more than happy to be on desk duty because anything else would be far too exhausting. She loved spending her evenings with her family and her nights in her husband's arms.

It was May and Olivia was eight months pregnant, standing in the kitchen and making breakfast for the entire Stabler clan. Elliot walked in and came to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck, "Good morning, Livvie," he mumbled against her skin.

She laughed, "Morning, El."

They stood there for a few moments until Olivia sighed heavily, "You know, I can't make breakfast unless you let me go."

"Breakfast is overrated."

"I don't think so," a voice behind them said.

They both turned to face the intruder and found Lizzie staring at them impatiently, "Good morning, Lizzie," Liv greeted.

"And…," Lizzie waited for her step-mother to continue.

Elliot and Olivia looked at her, feigning confusion. "And…what?" Elliot finally asked.

"What day is it?"

Olivia pretended to think about it, "May 12th?"

"Yes, and that's special because…?"

Elliot acted puzzled, "I don't know, Lizzie, it's early, why don't you just tell us."

"It's mine and Dickie's birthday!" the newly-turned 19-year-old exclaimed, clearly exasperated.

Elliot and Olivia both laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"You really," Olivia began through her laughter, "You really thought we forgot."

"You guys are horrible!" Lizzie was upset by their trick.

"But you love us anyway," Elliot told her as he and Liv walked over to give her a hug.

"Not the point," Lizzie countered.

"Will dinner tonight with the entire family and shopping tomorrow with just your sisters and I make up for it?" Olivia asked.

"Definitely," Lizzie hugged Olivia tightly.

"What about me?" Dickie asked, coming into the kitchen.

"You're doing something with Eli and I," his father told him, "But you have to wait to find out what."

"But Lizzie gets to know what she's doing with Liv," he whined.

"Too bad for you," Elliot said nonchalantly.

**A/N: I'm going to try to continue with my updates this weekend, but I'm supposed to be going out of town with my family and don't know if or when I'll have internet access. This story's almost done anyway. The next chapter is when the baby's born and might be the last. I may, however, do one or two more chapters after that, I haven't really decided yet. So if you have any ideas for any one-shots or even another story just let me know because right now I have no idea what I should write next or if I should even write another story.**


	50. Chapter 50

It was June 5th, three days past Olivia's due date and she was miserable. She was glad that her doctor had decided to induce her tomorrow morning, she was sick of being pregnant.

Early the next morning, Elliot drove Olivia to the hospital for the induction and shortly after 4:00 that afternoon they were the proud parents of a brand-new baby girl. By 5:00, all the older Stabler kids, newlyweds Chris and Kathy Miller, as well as everyone from the 1-6 had crowded into Olivia's hospital room to meet the baby.

"She's so cute," Lizzie crooned, "What's her name?"

Olivia looked up at Elliot, then back towards the group gathered around them, "We named her Maleah Brynlee Stabler."

"That's such a pretty name," Alex said, passing the sleeping baby she was holding to Casey.

Two days later, Elliot drove his wife and new baby home. The family settled into a new routine, including feedings, diaper changes, and regular visits from the proud older siblings.

As expected, Maleah received tons of gifts. Everything she received was pink: pink clothes, pink blankets, pink toys, everything a baby could ever want in varying shades of pink. Olivia's favorite gift, though, came from an unlikely source: Kathy. It was a pink side-by-side double frame, with the work "family" across the bottom. Both pictures had been taken at the hospital, a few hours after Maleah was born. The first one, was of Olivia holding Maleah with Elliot sitting next to her, one arm around his shoulders and the other resting on her arm, helping to support the baby. They were both smiling widely. The other picture was almost the same, but it included all eight Stabler's, each of them wearing their own wide grin.

Olivia loved the pictures and hung the frame on the wall with the rest of the family pictures in Maleah's room.

**A/N: I know it's short, but there it is: the end of this story. I have absolutely no idea what to write next, so if you have any ideas let me know. I'm considering a series of one-shots connected to this story, some random one-shots, or even another story. If you're kind enough to send me an idea, please include which of those three options you would like it to be used for. Thanks and love always, Kate!**


	51. Chapter 51

**Okay, I've received some messages from readers wanting me to do a series of one-shots for this story and I'd love to do it, but there's a little problem…I have no idea what kind of moments you guys want one-shots of, so I have to questions for you guys:**

**Are you still interested? Yes, no, maybe?**

**What do you guys want to see me write about?**

**I would love for you guys to give me suggestions for some one-shots related to this story, but if you're ready to be done with this story, you can also send me suggestions for a new story.**

**Thanks and all my love,**

**Kate**


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